Thoughts about Charlene and Morning walks in June

My lovely step-mom passed away early this summer. It's been a strange time and a lot of my schedule suddenly had to be adjusted to accommodate the changes in Dad's life. This wasn't really bad, just a shuffling of priorities. It's kinda sad that the times that make us re-evaluate what's really important usually are the tragedies we encounter.



After the funeral there was quite a bit of time thinking, walking and looking. Penny, Charlene's cat found herself lost without her normal lap to sit in. She spent a lot of time hiding under the bed, wandering around



and my personal favorite: sitting in the front window looking out for her Mom to come home.


She has recently found herself on Dad's lap quite a bit and this is good. They both need each other right now.

I take a lot of walks when I go up to Dad's. There's a wonderful exercise path close to his house and I usually make use of it. Early in the day, even in the summer, the air is mountain cool and the view is extraordinary. Jim and I walked down to the little town and found a nice lake nestled in the hills. It was lovely and serene. Calming and refreshing.






I could just swear this little guy was posing for us. He never got off the lawn he was on (if you could call it that) but kept close to us as we walked around the property.

It always amazes me how people react to grief. Everyone does it differently. Dad was immediately overcome by a sense of loss and loneliness. It's been a couple of months now and I think he has healed some. At least he doesn't seem so down. He got the battery charged on his motorized chair and has decided to start moving around the neighborhood. He is seeking to touch the world outside, even when it's hard for him to get there. Where there's a will, there is a way! When the new Senior Citizen Center is built, I think he's going to be one of the first ones going. I'm glad. He needs people and he knows it. The hole created by Charlene's passing is still there, it'll take while to heal, but life goes on.

Who knows what the next chapter in our story will be? Not I.

Sometimes I wonder how life would be like without so many "dramas". Nice and serene like the bovine before us waiting in the field for the cowhand to come and move them her back into the barn for the night. No stress, just eat and get nice and fat. No deadlines, no PTA meetings, no meals to prepare and houses to clean. As serene as it is to just watching her, it's not what life for human beings is. We have been given more to do and a human cannot be fulfilled by sitting in a pasture. Our minds are busy and we feel we need to move and do something. We are happier with the time tables and responsibilities than we realize.

It is good to step back, enjoy the beauty of nature and find some peace in the world around us. But to want it all the time just isn't natural for us. I don't really believe in "retirement". I know I'm going to want to do something until I step up to the Pearly Gates and I'm truly grateful to have plenty to do right now.

Artful breakfast!

We've been watching "Iron Chef, America" and it's rubbing off. I tend to play a little bit with the plating, especially for breakfast. This is an omelet with avocado, bacon, cheese, mushrooms and tomato topped with a garnish of my own homemade sour cream. It was delectable!

Birthday

My 60th birthday! What a day!



It was a landmark day in several ways. I hit a decade. 6th decade to be exact. I'm still pretty healthy for my age. And I want to make some promises to myself for the next decade, at least, if not the next 20 or 30 years. I have a few good years left and I'd like to make them count.

So, how does one go about making the promises and How the heck do you keep them? Seems like every time I've made new year's resolutions, I've found myself slowly slipping and after a while just forgetting them completely. Every time I start a diet the same thing happens- I get tired of the discipline and doing the right thing (i.e.- not eat the wrong thing) and one bite of cookie leads to a small scoop of ice cream and so on and so forth!




These are some wonderful little guys my daughter made for me for my birthday. I actually got to help her make them. It was fun and I wasn't all that tempted to eat them. I got lots of pictures and happy memories of a great birthday!


Okay, back to the health rant, I do know one thing: I am going to have to get into much better shape to be able to handle the next what ever days (months/years?) I have left. 20 min of Yoga a couple of days a week is not enough. I'll just have to see what I can do to up the health ante!

"Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed."
Provers 15:22

Awakening

Of cats and showers and coming clean. Life and all that's there!




Ah, a new day. Clean out the old stuff and in with some new.






So, what shall we do with this day before us? Let's not forget the most precious things, family and home. Life is ahead of us and there are few more important things than the ones we love!



Be daring, go out into the world and conquer!

Celebrate Morning Coffee

Sometimes those little "happy accidents" are the coolest things. This morning I was making a cup of coffee in my wonderful (thrifted, btw) Senseo coffee pot and I got distracted with something in the other room. Came back after the foam had settled just a bit and there was this cool little heart in the cup.


I know this picture is fuzzy. Actually got a better shot with my phone, but am having problems with the phone and computer communicating with each other.

It just reminds me of the lovely things around us that we take for granted. Sometimes we are so busy, we don't stop and see the cool little things. I think it's almost a crime to not take a moment and celebrate.

Bingo!

I stopped in one of my very favorite thrift store this morning to check out what might be "new" and found a real treasure.

This resale shop has an odd habit of packaging random items in clear plastic bags and pricing the whole assortment as one. Sometimes the items are related, sometimes not. The packaging does help keep the shelves cleaner, but since I'm always trying to make connections in my brain, the packaging often resembles an 3D jigsaw puzzle.

This package had 2 balls of pink crochet thread, one red-neck bumper sticker proclaiming, "Happiness is yelling BINGO!" and an old worn out piece of hosiery filled with vintage savings stamps, coupons and box tops. I didn't really want the first two items, bit the hose filled packet had to be mine. I wasn't sure what was in it 'till I got it in the car, but it really looked promising!

Someone in the past lovingly saved these cool items and kept them safe in the bit of hosiery. The packet possibly lived in the corner of a drawer in the kitchen awaiting future use. Now someone with a passion for cleaning out the cobwebs finally sent them off to the resale shop. What's amazing about this is they didn't end up in the dumpster covered with grease, used coffee grounds or the contexts of Pussy Cat's litter box.

I might actually keep the bumper sticker and create a journal page with it for grins, but I'm not sure of what to do with the crochet thread. It probably will go back to the resale shop so someone else can worry about what to do with it. The coupons and boxtops? How does that go? "BINGO!"

Buzzwords and Old Buildings

Now, I was wondering. The problem is my mind wanders quite a lot and and seems to find itself wrapping around odd concepts. Most recently I have been pondering buzzwords. Things people say because they are so, well, cool. And darn it, "cool" is a buzzword! (Oops, I seem to be channeling Alton Brown, sorry!) See, I've wandered again!

When will it stop?

The buzzword I've been thinking about right now is "random". Have you noticed how it has creped into the language and lodged itself in our daily lives? I remember how the word "dynamite" became the buzzword of the day. That was the 70's along with Laugh In. The word drove me crazy and I was barely out of college. It still reminds me of paisley bell bottoms and Afros. Maybe it's because I never finished college. Excuses, excuses! Hey, that was so "random" of me!




Don't you just love old buildings? I do. I love the texture of the wood, the surface that says, "I've been around for a while". Someone built this structure for a purpose a long time and it's still here. I love the scars left by the absence of metal objects long gone. So, what happened here in a small town in West Texas just below the Panhandle? Obviously life happened and it keeps on going.

Here's hoping your life is rich with texture.

Christmas Day 2008

Since we didn't have any family in town this year to spend Christmas Day with, we went out to eat. All we could find open were one of those "pancake house" things, but... the meal we had was absolutely wonderful! We had a lovely meal, cooked perfectly and met a nice couple from out of town who were passing through on vacation. It was a nice, pleasant way to spend the day. And the bonus- No kitchen to clean!

I don't wear these shoes very often, but I really like them. I actually think I found them at an estate sale. It's hard to find 9 1/2 Narrow in the stores anymore, so thrifting comfortable shoes seems to be the only way for me.
And festive Christmas color for Christmas day!

Individually Me

I am me and no one else! Me, myself and I. No one dresses like me, eats like me, walks like me or thinks like me.


I am my own person and I defy anyone to try and copy me. There is no part of me you can mold or record or put in a fancy photograph and even hope to come out with a semblance of my real character and life. You could clone me and all you would have for your trouble is an fresh person- a life that would move off the game board I'm on and become someone completely different from me in a different game completely. I am me and no one else.

A Clean Sweep

Well, here goes. It's been way too long and I'm ready to just do it!

I sure hope everyone out there in blog-land has had a good holiday. Mine was alright, but I always feel kinda funny/empty after Christmas. There is some sort of magic in the expectation of the holiday and Christmas morning it kinda disappears. I'd love to know why this happens. Maybe it's just that I need to get up off my hiney and get to work!

I do have some resolutions. Didn't really think I'd make any this year. The ones I've made in the past all seem to have flown the coup, so why is this year any different? It seems the human spirit is always trying to adjust itself and "fix" what's wrong. I have quite a few things that need fixing so it's probably best to make them public (like confession) and maybe I'll pay more attention to them.

1. I do need to lose weight. But, I think what is in order is a life-style change and not just a temporary fix at the scales. There's more to this one than just getting skinny. Though, I'd love to make some really cool artsy clothes to wear at Art Events. I dress entirely too frumpy!
2. Dress better. Okay, I'm working on that. Frump goes out the window!
3. Spend lots more time with my kids and grandkids.
4. Finish the kitchen. It's getting there, but not fast enough.
5. Landscape the backyard. I have too much space back there. Right now it looks like a wasteland!
And-last-but-not-least:
6. Blog a whole lot more! Twice a year is not enough! Let's start with twice a week (baby steps)-and I do need to figure out things, like getting it to look better. Never have figured out how to put my art in the banner. It'll come.

That's enough for now. If I actually pay attention to these past January, I'll be doing great!