All in all, a good weekend..........

I had a pretty good weekend.  I cleaned my house Saturday morning and made dinner for some family Saturday night.  My Mom and my oldest sister, Dennice, came up and we had Thomas' three sisters over, as well.  Two live here in town but the third was still visiting from Tennessee; she'd been up since their Dad died and she left for home today, so I wanted to have them all over at the same time.  Her husband had already gone back home and the other two husbands weren't able to make it.  So Thomas and Andrew were the only two males here!   We had a nice visit, though; lots of laughter and funny family stories.

I made a venison pot roast with carrots, new potatoes and baby onions (well, that goes without saying, doesn't it? how can you make a pot roast without those three things?!), homemade biscuits and steamed asparagus.  My Mom brought her famous, homemade (from scratch) chocolate layer cake that I hadn't had in years and is just melt-in-your-mouth delicious!!  I served that with vanilla ice cream.  Thomas had made some butternut squash pies earlier in the week (his specialty, and a recipe he learned from his dad, no less), so when I mentioned that we still had some squash pie if anyone would like some, my sister said, "You mean you haven't brought it out yet?!"  Everyone loves his squash pie.   Didn't exactly go with the rest of the menu, but who cared?

I had stayed up way too late on Friday night and had a busy day Saturday, cooking and cleaning, and even though everyone left around 9:00 it was still after 11 before I got to bed.  Then after our meeting this morning we went with some friends to Golden Corral, where I stuffed myself for the second day in a row.  When we got back home I could barely keep my eyes open to find my way to the bed.  Andrew had ridden to Golden Corral with two of his friends, Jamie and Joel, and after lunch he went with them to Jamie's house to play video games and later they went to Louisville to play lazer tag. 

Thomas lay down to nap the same time I did, and after he'd slept about a half hour we got a call inviting Eler Beth to go play with the daughters of some other friends of ours.  So Thomas said he'd take her (I really appreciated the invitation because she'd been moping around trying to decide what she wanted to do--with Andrew gone and it pouring down rain outside, her options seemed limited.)

These friends have a daughter a year younger that Eler Beth and a daughter (from his previous marriage) two years older, and the girls get along great.  They have a lot in common.  I've known them since Thomas and I got married, and he's known them since he was a teenager (and was a groomsman in the husband's first wedding).  So when they left I asked Thomas if he was coming back while Eler Beth played or if he was going to stay and "play" with Tony.  Hah!  That was just a rhetorical question, because when he and Tony get together they could talk fishing, boating or deer hunting for hours.

I slept the whole time they were gone.  They got home at 9:30 and I called Tony's wife and thanked her for letting Thomas and Eler Beth come over to play.  Andrew got home at 10, and now here I sit, wide awake!!  I just did some laundry and got things organized for tomorrow, and I really am just about to go back to bed.  Just thought I'd update real quick. 

Our weather here has been a little cooler than normal and it has rained for two days now.  I think it's going to say cool this week, which is fine with me, as long as it stays dry.  I'd like to be able to do some more planting and get my yard mowed again.

Well, I'm off to bed.  Hopefully I won't have any trouble getting up in the morning and I can get my body back on schedule!  Hope everyone has a nice week.

I Think I'm Kermit The Frog, But I'm Only 40% Weird?

Actually, this is just as I thought:

You Are 40% Weird Normal enough to know that you're weird...
But too damn weird to do anything about

Well, of course!  Why should I want to do anything about it?

Blogthings - How Weird Are You?

No, it's not easy being green............

 

You Are Kermit Hi, ho! Lovable and friendly, you get along well with everyone you know.
You're a big thinker, and sometimes you over think life's problems.
Don't worry - everyone know's it's not easy being green.
Just remember, time's fun when you're having flies!

 

Blogthings - The Muppet Personality Test

A Bit of Friday Fun.............

I'm a "Sunrise"?  And I always thought of myself as a nightowl!

You Are Sunrise You enjoy living a slow, fulfilling life. You enjoy living every moment, no matter how ordinary.
You are a person of reflection and meditation. You start and end every day by looking inward.
Caring and giving, you enjoy making people happy. You're often cooking for friends or buying them gifts.
All in all, you know how to love life for what it is - not for how it should be.

 

Blogthings - What Time Of Day Are You?

Another Year, Another Science Fair

Anyone out there have any interesting ideas for a good science fair experiment/presentation for a fourth-grader?

After about seven years of coming up with stuff for Andrew and four years (including kindergarten) for Eler Beth, we're about out of ideas!!  I sure would love to help her do something different this year.  Anyone have any interesting or unique suggestions?.....  Anyone?.....  Anyone?.....

Giving Up Some of the Control

Being a good, loving mother means being able to give up control and not say anything when...

he folds the towels in simple quarter folds, instead of your compulsively neat and more complicated way

she has mowed uneven, zig zag swaths of lawn

he doesn't do the dishes in the order that you're obsessed with

she polishes the wood furniture against the grain

he vacuums uneven, zig zag swaths across the carpet

she dusts your nic nacs and then lines them up rigidly, instead of achieving that softer layout

he makes his own bed and it looks worse than before he made it

she hangs up her clothes facing the wrong way in the closet

and I could go on.............

We let Eler Beth mow for the first time yesterday.  She did a great job, but I had to bite my tongue at first to keep from giving her precise instructions on how to mow in neat rows or squares.  Instead I praised and watched proudly as she really did a good job.  Most of the strips that she left she went back and got, and I won't mind too much if I have to even some of it up tomorrow.  I learned a long time ago that it's best to let them do it wrong a few times before you gently correct their methods.  I am so anal about most things like washing dishes, mowing, folding towels, etc., and it used to drive me nuts when I would show Andrew how to do something more than once (and all the while thinking, he should know I like it done this way --  he sees me do it this way all the time), and he just couldn't seem to catch on.  I finally, when he was about 11, gave up trying to get him to do the dishes the way I wanted him to do them.  Slowly he worked out most of the kinks in his chores on his own, and I could make one suggestion at a time on ways to be more efficient or show him why I do things a certain way, or simply ask that he humor me and do it the way I prefer.  By the time Eler Beth was old enough to have regular chores of her own I had learned my lesson.

Of course with Eler Beth it was easier because she just naturally notices more details anyway (maybe it's a girl thing).  She was so proud that we had finally let her do some of the mowing.  She is one hard worker, that girl. 

Yes, I've learned to let go of some of the control and to let some things slide.

More of this and that............

  It's beautiful again today.  Yesterday Thomas and I took advantage of the cessation of rain and finally got that weed field we call our back yard cut!!  So now my front and back yards are decent.  Eler Beth and I went shopping and got some pansies and dahlias, and we happily played in the dirt for an hour or so. 

I have a tree in my front yard around which the roots are above the ground, and the grass is sparse in this area.  I have decided to just do something creative and interesting with rocks, ground cover, hostas, fossils and maybe I'll put a bench right in the middle of it.  If it turns out good I'll share pictures.

I have this other journal that I haven't done anything with for a long time.  I started it to talk about my father and mother's families, post old pictures, and hopefully hear from any distant relatives.   My very first entry in the journal asks for anyone related to the Dowells or Robertses from Breckinridge County, KY to contact me.  Well, I finally was contacted.  A comment was left in that first post, from a cousin I've never met.  His mother and I are first cousins, and I never met her either.  She was the daughter of one of my Dad's eldest brothers.  This particular uncle of mine was married twice.  His first wife, with whom he had several children died before I was born.  They lived in Louisville, and I never remember meeting any of those kids.  He remarried and had three children, two older than I and one two years younger than I.  They moved back to Breckinridge County while all three children were still young, so I grew up with them.

Anyway, this cousin, Steve, is the son of one those daughters from the first marriage.  I emailed him, he responded, and I hope this is just the beginning of a regular correspondence.  He has been researching my father's family for the past 25 years and was able to go back two generations further than I had previously been aware of.  He assured me he would share his research with me.  I let him know about the Dowell reunion we're having in July; he isn't sure he and his wife can come.  I hope they can.  

I called my mom and told her about him contacting me, and she said if she had a computer that's what she'd enjoy using it for.  We've been trying to talk her into letting us buy her one, so we could stay in touch by email.  She said she'd have to hunt and peck to type emails, but I said that was fine, at least we could contact her every day.  We may just buy her one whether she likes it or not!

                                  

Tags: Family history, genealogy, Dowell, Roberts

This and That

I want to thank everyone for their very nice wishes for Thomas' family.  The memorial service was very nice and a lot of Mr. H's family came in from several states.  His father had had three wives and children from each wife.  Mr. H was the last one living from the first group; there are three from the second group, two of which came in; and there are four from the third group, all of whom came in.

I know there are things Thomas will miss about his dad; the good things he remembers from when he was a child, but I think he grieved for his dad a long time ago when he realized he wasn't going to be the kind of father and grandfather that Thomas needed him to be.  But yesterday out of the blue he said, "You know, all the rain we've had the past two weeks -- it wouldn't surprise me if that's why Daddy died Monday.  He never could take rainy seasons." 

We really enjoyed seeing some of Thomas' family we hadn't seen in years, and some I'd never met before.

It is finally sunny and beautiful today, after five straight days of rain.  I'll come back later and tell what I've been doing.  It's been a busy day!

A Death in the Family

As I was getting ready to leave work yesterday afternoon, I got a call from one of Thomas' sisters to say that their father had passed away.

It was not unexpected.  I believe he'd been hanging on to life (barely) for the past year out of sheer stubborness.  He was 91 years old and barely weighed as much as my daughter.  He'd just had a bout with pneumonia, and has been in and out of the hospital for the past couple of months.  Most of the time recently he didn't seem to recognize any of the kids except the daughter who was his major caregiver. 

I have mentioned before that Thomas and his father were not really close, especially in recent years.  I don't want to say too much on that today out of respect for my father-in-law, but Thomas is a good man, an excellant husband and father, a dutiful brother and son, and he didn't learn those things from any example from his father.  Mr. H did not treat those boys well when they were younger.  As I've said before, Thomas looked on my dad as more of a father to him than his own.

I am sorry for Thomas' sisters because they are truly grieving right now.   I have made myself available to them to help out in any way I can.  My own father's illness and death were very sudden, and Thomas' sisters, especially the oldest, Mary, were so very kind and  helpful to me during that time, so I want to repay them as much as I can.  He will be cremated and there will be a memorial service.  A lot of family will be coming in from Alabama and Florida.

My kids never got close to their Granddad H.  He never really gave them the opportunity to do so.  They are sorry he is gone, but they are not grieving like they did when my Dad ("Papaw") died.  I'm glad Eler Beth is  handling it so well, because she is just now getting able to talk about my Dad's death.  We have worked really hard this past year to help her come out of her "silent" grieving.  We've been preparing her, of course, for her Granddad's death, because we knew it was only a matter of a little time.  I think that has helped, too.

So, yesterday's gloomy cloud that was hanging over my head all day bore fruit at the end of the day, didn't it?  Today was a much better day; sunny and very warm.  And my sisters-in-law seemed to be handling things better than they were last night.  They've made the arrangements with the funeral home and Thomas went by after work and signed the papers for the cremation.  They are now busy with the rest of the details and getting the extended family into town.

I feel better mentally than I did yesterday, but I have a scratchy throat and I keep sneezing.  Maybe that was part of what was wrong with me yesterday; coming down with a cold/allergies.  I can take off up to three days, paid, for bereavement, so I might just take off all three to make sure I don't get sick.  I worked six hours today, then left because of feeling bad.  I figured I could help them make phone calls. 

Well, that's all for now.  I'll update later.

I Got the Blues

I'm back at work today, and I am very, uncharacteristically depressed.

I don't get sad or depressed very often, at least not from situations.  And I can usually work through it when I do and bounce right back.  I have chemical depression for which I take medication.  But I guess maybe this job situation is finally getting to me.  When I consciously think about it I don't feel depressed.  But I guess subconsciously it's affecting me more than I like to admit (because I'm a bit of a perfectionist and I don't like control of my life to be taken from me by this company!).

Of course, it's kind of a rainy, dreary day; it's a Monday; I still feel tired and drained -- any of those reasons could make me feel bad.  But I know it's the job.  I just want it to end.  When I got back today I had an email letting all of us know that we'll know 60 days in advance of our final date here.  Well, I think the transition is supposed to be complete on June 30, the latest we could get the word is May 1, right?

"I am staying for the severence."  I've had to repeat that mantra to myself a lot lately, because it is so tempting to just go ahead and find another job.  But I want to be able to take a couple weeks off with my kids this summer, and the only way I can afford to do that is by sticking it out and getting my severence.  So I know I'm doing the right thing for me by staying.  But oh do I want June 30 to get here!

At least the workload is under control again, and they aren't asking for a lot of overtime.  I still love what I do and the people I work with.  But I am definitely depressed today.  I think if someone said just the right thing to me at the wrong time I would burst into tears.  That would probably scare the bejeebers out of the people I work with.  Miss Sunshine having a meltdown?  No way!

Oh well, enough.  I thought it might help to write it down and share.  Thanks for listening.  I'll get back to my work, now.  Hopefully I'll be a little more cheerful by the time I get home. 

At Peace and Pain Free

   Pam lost her fight with cancer today.  Her journal was one of the first I ever started reading when I began journaling last year.  I am sorry that she is gone, but I am glad she is now pain free.  Her children are the ones who need our sympathy right now.  She was very brave to chronicle her journey with lung cancer in her online journal, and she set a great example with her humor.  I will miss her entries.  I was really hoping for a miracle this time.

Tags: Pam, Just One Girl's Head Noise

My turn!

 

Well, it has finally happened to me.  The hit-meter phantom has struck my journal.  I had over 3,000 hits yesterday, but now today I have only 13.  I knew it would be my turn sooner or later!

Tags: Hit-meter

From my April 2005 Archives

COMFORT AND SECURITY

I am slowly waking up.  But I don't open my eyes, yet.  I feel like I am floating awake.  I can hear the drone of a bee outside the open window. 

I am in my mother's bed.  The big iron bed that was my grandmother's.  There is a sheet over me and I feel as if I am sinking down into the mattress.  I have been so sick, but I've had such a nice rest.  Now I hear a fly buzzing about.  I feel a little bit of a warm breeze coming through the window and it brushes a light kiss on my face.

I slowly open my eyes.  My mother is sitting beside me on the bed, facing me, reading a magazine.  I realize I'd been hearing the rustle of the pages as she turned them.  As she's reading she is slowly waving a fly swatter over me, shooing the fly that got in and that is trying to interrupt my rest.  My eyes close and I sink back into sleep.

I wake again.  I am warmer.  I don't really need the light sheet over me now, but I am too drowsy to push it off.  The warm breeze is making the white lacy curtains flutter a little at the window.  Now I hear the drone of a lawn mower in the distance.  I drift to sleep again.

I wake, but don't open my eyes.  There is a nice, comforting sound coming to me. A soft swish, swish, swish, a muted thump, then a slight rustling.  Then the whole thing repeated.  I listen to this repeated refrain a few times before I push to open my eyes.  I see my mother at the foot of the bed, ironing.  Swish, swish goes her iron over the garment.  A soft, muted thump when she sets it down on the ironing board.  A slight rustle as she moves the garment around on the board or takes it off to replace it with another. Occasionally she hums a partial tune, quietly, almost to herself. What a wonderfully soft, gentle, comforting series of sounds to awake to.                                                                                                               

This is my "happy place" thought.  I was about six years old.  I don't know what I'd been sick with, but I can remember waking up and seeing my mother sitting there reading, fanning flies away from me.  And I remember waking to the sounds of her ironing and quietly humming.  Whenever I need a little comfort, a thought to take me back to a happy, secure feeling, this is the memory I turn to.

A Hypothetical Question

What if there were no hypothetical questions?

                                     

Feeling Better

I love the piano and the horns in this song (above).  I'm listening to my Ultimate Seventies CDs.  Seems to fit my rather nostalgic mood.  I stayed home again today.  I'm feeling better, but still not sleeping well.  The decongestant I'm taking is really getting a lot of stuff draining, so I coughed a lot through the night and couldn't sleep lying down.  My head is still aching, but not the headache I had Monday thru Thursday!!

My blood pressure was back to almost normal yesterday, so I think it was high on Wednesday mostly because I'd had no sleep and that darn headache for three days.  Hopefully that's what raised it.  It has been so gorgeous all week, but I haven't been able to enjoy it.  I did sit out on the front porch for a few minutes Wednesday afternoon to watch Eler Beth riding her bike for awhile.  Then yesterday she and I played with the dogs for awhile, but not for too long.  The sun was so bright that even with sunglasses it bothered my eyes.

It stormed here last night, and there were tornado warnings just a little North of us, but nothing like what Iowa and Illinois got.  They got hit pretty hard; I think they said maybe 20 tornadoes in all.  I haven't heard yet if there were any deaths; I hope not.  The sun started shining again here about an hour ago.   For awhile there I thought it was going to be gloomy all day long.

<   Well, maybe more later.  Just thought I'd catch up on some journal writing and on some alerts.  Hope everyone has a good weekend.

Creative and Personable

At some time I apparently did this quiz and saved it as well.  If nothing else, it is a nice ego-booster!  Makes me feel more valuable!

 

 

Creative and Personable

With your skills, you could be earning up to $83,000 per year. Find out which jobs match these skills in your personalized Right Job Report.

You're a visionary in many people's eyes — able to think outside the box and to come up with your own solutions. You're creative not necessarily in the artistic sense, but because you can expand your mind to do things differently from others.

It might take a while for colleagues to recognize and reward you for your entrepreneurial spirit and abilities. That could be because they envy you, or because they find your ideas slightly rebellious — willing to go against the current.

All in all, you make it hard for people to pigeon hole you. That is why you, more than others, need a job that allows you to play to your strengths, break out of the mold, and truly excel.

The IQ of a "motherly type?"

I've been home from work all week.  I've had a  headache that latched on and didn't want to let go.  I've gone to the doctor's, got some decongestant, antibiotic and, just for good measure, he did a complete blood work up.  I'm feeling some better today, finally, just a little befuddled from the medicine.

 

I feel kind of guilty being home, because we lost Lisa, our Operations Expert, last week.  Last Monday she announced that she was taking a position with another company downtown.  No one could blame her.  She'd been with our company for almost 11 years, but they hadn't offered her a position with the small part of doc. management that is staying.  So we gave her a big send off on Friday.  In an email at the end of the day she thanked everyone and wrote each of us who'd known her the longest a little something.  Here's what she wrote that she appreciated about me:  "Lori, I admire your motherly, take charge, helpful self.  I admire the love you keep at home.  Work does not interfere with your home life.  And isn't that the way it should be."

 

I thought that was very nice of her to say.  I do have sort of a "take charge" reputation at work, and, being one of the sponsors and training assistants for the temps, I suppose you could call me "helpful".  I really don't usually let work interfere with home, and I never say anything bad about my family but share loving stories.  But I'd never thought of being seen as "motherly" by anyone there.  After I read that, though, I realized that I do sort of mother everyone, even the ones older than I am.  I guess that's an okay thing to be called.  Just took me by surprise.  It reminded me of one of those internet quizzes I took a while back.  I saved the results, but didn't save the link, so I'm not sure which quiz-generator it came from.  I think it was Tickle: The Classic IQ Test, but I'm not sure.  Anyway, it was an IQ quiz, and hereis the result that I got.

 

Congratulations, Lori!
Your IQ score is 131

This number is based on a scientific formula that compares how many questions you answered correctly on the Classic IQ Test relative to others.

Your Intellectual Type is Visual Mathematician. This means you are gifted at spotting patterns — both in pictures and in numbers. These talents combined with your overall high intelligence make you good at understanding the big picture, which is why people trust your instincts and turn to you for direction — especially in the workplace.

Tags: Tickle, Classic IQ Test

Some Stories From Jewell

A couple of Saturdays ago we went out to eat with three other couples and their kids (who are friends of our kids'), and we invited along an elderly friend of ours, Jewell.  (We ate at Chili's; great food and fantastic service!)  Jewell is about 80 years old, and until a year ago she was still driving and doing most things for herself.  But she has had macular degeneration for a while now, and so had to give up driving about a year ago.  She still lives on her own and does most things for herself, though, but there are some things she needs help with, and she told me, "Lori, it's hard getting old and having to depend on other people."

Her kids sort of grew up with Thomas and one of his sisters, so she's known him since he was a teen, and looks on us like we're just more of her kids.  She even calls my kids her grandkids.  Andrew cuts her grass for her and Thomas does other things, like trimming trees and bushes and such.  She got a kick out of watching Eler Beth helping Thomas clear out some brush from her property line last year.  Eler Beth got out there and worked as hard as Thomas, and that just tickled her.

Well, Jewell has lived a long and interesting life and on the way to dinner that night she shared some more of her funny stories with us.  I can't remember them all, but I'll share a couple.  She told how her mother made homemade strawberry wine once and allowed her to have a little bit in one of those small juice glasses.  Well, unknown to her mother, her older brother refilled her glass.  Jewell said it tasted so good she asked for a third, and her brother obliged.  Jewell said when she woke up she was under the kitchen table.

She was born in Shelby Country, Kentucky, but in elementary school her family moved to Indiana.  She said for many, many years, though she still considered herself a Kentuckian.  She married when she was almost 19 right before her fiance shipped out overseas (WWII).  Their first child was born when she was almost 21.   Right after he was born she lived near an army base, and one day she took him in his large, fancy, baby buggy to a store on the base.  While she was in line the lady behind her askedher where she was from.  Jewell replied "Kentucky", even though she had lived in Indiana most of her life.  The lady behind  her said, "I always heard Kentucky girls married and had babies young."  Well, that really irritated Jewel, who was 21 at the time.  So she said, "Well, some do, ma'am, but I was gettin' up there when I got married.  They thought I was going to be an old maid, because I was 14 before I got my man."  Well, that shut the woman up.

When she and  her husband were first married, he went right off to basic training.  Well, she, on her own, traveled from Louisville by train to the state where he was going to be stationed right after basic to get an apartment near the base all on her own.  She'd never gone that far or done anything like that on her own before, but she did just fine.  The day she went to meet Harold's train she stopped at a little drug store and sat down at the counter and got a cola to drink while she was waiting for his train.  A big, good-looking guy sat down on the stool next to her and started hitting on her.   So she slipped her hand in her pocket, pulled out a little notebook and pencil that she carried with her and wrote "I'm a deaf-mute, but thank you so much for wanting to talk to me."  She said that guy just about fell off his stool trying to get away from  her.  She finished her cola in peace and then went to meet her new husband's train.

Tags: Family Stories

Birth Date Meme

Apparently there's an internet meme going 'round that Scalzi has introduced to us here in J-land.  Go to Wikipedia and enter your birth month and year (not the date); then choose from the list at least three events, two births and one death.  Here's mine:

April 6 --  Events:

     1) In 1814, Napoleon abdicated and was exiled to the island of Elba

     2) In 1917 the United States declared war on Germany; see Wilson's address to Congress.

     3)  In 1930, Hostess invented TWINKIES!!! (That was my favorite one!)

April 6 --  Births:

     1)  In 1937 American musician Merle Haggard is born (One of my favorite country music singers)

     2)  Also in 1937 American actor Billy Dee Williams was born

I decided to throw in a third birth from this date, Italian painter and architect Raphael, who was born on this date in 1483 --  you'll see why in a minute.

April 6 -- Deaths:

     1)  David Bloom in 2003, an American reporter who died of a pulmonary embolism while on assignment in Irag. 

I also want to add accused murderer Sam Shephard in 1970 (remember the Fugitive?), country music star Tammy Wynette in 1998, Prince Ranier III of Monaco in 2005, and, drum roll please..............Italian painter and architect Raphael in 1520 -- yes he was born and he died on the same date, April 6, at the ageof 37.

This was fun.  I think I'll do it for my kids and hubby, too.

Tags: Birthday meme, April 6, Hostess Twinkies

Playing in the Dirt

   It sure is a gorgeous day today!  After we got home from our meeting we had a quick lunch, then Eler Beth and I started getting our front yard in order.  I'm taking a break from weeding and cleaning out old leaves and trash, and arranging or rearranging borders.  I doubt we'll actually plant anything today, but we're definitely getting all of our beds ready for planting.                                                       

Thomas works for a quarry so he often brings home really nice limestone rocks, usually absolutely full of fossils and sometimes containing quartzite or crystals.  I use these to border or decorate my plant beds.  Eler Beth has quite a collection of fossils and minerals that she's collected over the years, including four trilobites (two of which she found at the quarry).

  We found lots of earthworms and big, fat, white grubs.  Eler Beth was going to put them in a container to use when she next goes fishing, but we convinced her that a) she probably won't go fishing before next weekend and b) it'll be better for our plants if we leave the earthworms where they are.

I can't wait to actually get my hands in some soil and get some seeds or plants in. 

My flowering almond is blooming very prettily right now.  My mother gave me a cutting off hers when we bought this house five years ago, and it took off very well.  It's a very pretty bush now.  My lilac is looking much better, too.  My sister, Lois, gave me a piece off the lilac in her yard that had originally been part of the lilac bush in my paternal grandmother's yard, so it's special to me.  She also gave it to me when we bought our house.  I planted it and it took off very well; the second year it grew even more, and I was so pleased that it was doing so well.  That fall I had moved the marker that kept me or Thomas from accidentally cutting it down, preparatory to putting a pretty border around it one weekend, when the nice old gentleman who mows our neighbor's yard for her decided he would be nice and mow our front yard which was beginning to get a lot of fall leaves on it.  He mowed with his mulching mower so that our leaves were taken care of, and he was so pleased with himself -- but he mowed down my lilac!!  Thankfully it came right back up in the Spring of the third year; last year it grew a couple more inches, and this year it's looking really good!  Maybe someday (probably about the time we're ready to sell this house and move) it will actually have some blooms.

Well, I'm going to go do a little bit more yard work, but I'll be back later.  Don't know what I'll write about, but I'll be back!

Another one from Last Year............

From March 31, 2005 ~~~

"I Wish The Word Grounded Was Never Invented!!"

Those were the words my daughter muttered on her way to bed -- at 11:00!!! 

She had kept putting off doing an assignment all week that is due tomorrow, therefore the late night.  And while I was trying to help her AND do her hair at the same time I got a little bit of attitude.  The attitude didn't improve after a warning, but got worse, therefore the grounding.  Now that the hair is done, the assignment complete and in the backpack, and frayed nerves have been smoothed somewhat, regret has set in.  Suddenly someone remembers what she's going to be missing out on tomorrow evening if she is grounded.  And now she wishes the word had never been invented.

I don't ever remember being grounded when I was a kid.  I can remember being spanked, made to stand in the corner, or denied some treat, but I don't think my parents were ever aware of the term "grounded".  I was born in 1966, the youngest of seven children, to parents in their forties.  I honestly don't think "grounded" was in their vocabulary.   And if I had ever been grounded, what would I have been grounded from?  Reading?  That's all I ever did.   We didn't have video games back then.  No computer.  We lived out in the country, so it wasn't as if neighborhood kids would be knocking on the door to see if we could come out to play.  I guess in my teens I could have been grounded off the phone.  Come to think of it that would have been really bad!  Or denied going to a friend's house, having a friend over, or using the car.  Yes, I guess there were a few things I could have been grounded from.  But I never was.  I was a good girl.  No drinking, smoking, partying, running around, breaking curfews or sneaking out!  Wow, I must have been boring.  I don't think being boring has scarred me, however!  

These kids of ours have so many things we didn't have, and so many opportunities that weren't open to us, that I actually feel guilty when I DO have to take something away from them.  And I really shouldn't because it isn't going to hurt them in the long run.  It is going to make them more appreciative of the things they have.  Yeah, that's right.  So, here's to the person who "invented" the word "grounded"!  All hail!!  Long live groundings! 

From the Archives

March 12 I mentioned that my journal was one year old.  I had intended to revisit some of my March 2005 entries during March 2006, but I never got around to it.  So I'm going to go ahead and share one today from last March.  This was dated Monday, March 28, and I thought it was cute. ~~~

 

Any Nanny Lovers Out There?

My nine-year old daughter is addicted to these nanny shows!  I have to admit, they are kind of fun to watch.  For me they're fun because I can watch in fascination and say to myself, "Wow, glad my kids aren't that bad."  My daughter watches in a kind of fascinated horror.  She makes comments like, "That kid is a brat!  I'm glad I don't act like that!"  Occasionally, though, she slides me a side-long look with a little half-smile on her face that says, "oh, oh, I kinda do that, too."  But today she apologised to me for something and after the "I'm sorry, mom," she went on to state exactly what she'd done to be sorry for.  Then she said, "Notice what I did?  I did what the Super Nanny says to do.  I said what I was sorry for."  Way to go Super Nanny!  We saw so many previews of Super Nanny on ABC that we eagerly awaited the first episode.  I thought it was cute, but not necessarily something I would stay up every Monday night til 11:00 to watch.  But my daughter has me tape it every Monday so she can watch it the next day.  Then two weeks ago we accidently stumbled upon Nanny 911 on FOX.  This one comes on on Monday, too, but at 8:00.  So she has a dose of nanny at eight, then gets her next nanny fix the next day sometime before bedtime.  I don't mind.  I have a great respect for nannies.  I don't know how real these shows are.  Some of these families seem pretty way out, but then, wait, I do actually know some families like this.  But the families I know would NEVER let anyone come in to tape them, much less try to FIX them!  It makes for a clean, entertaining hour for my daughter, and, hey, now she states what she's sorry for, so more power to them.