Reading Again

Somewhere back about 1979 when I became a foster mother I found it necessary to give up reading, crafts and crocheting. It was about being a single mother and working full time. I went on to adopt and wouldn't change a thing about that. I did resume crocheting and other hobbies, but never did get back to reading books. I had this problem of falling asleep or just spacing out and had to re-read about every page. I did continue reading short stories such as Reader's Digest and Guidepost articles in the "reading room".

In January 2009 we traveled with my sister and brother-in-law to Hawaii and during the long flights and rest times I resumed reading books! I still had problems staying awake and concentrating until I got an iPad about a year ago. I'm not quite sure what it is, but I am able to read "normally" again. I think it might be that I can enlarge the font and it has the lighted page. Guess I have to admit my ageing eyesight was part of the problem lately, since I can't use the "worn out single young mother" excuse anymore.

I just answered a question on Facebook about my favorite book, and it's "Dog On It" by Spencer Quinn. It's fairly light reading, very funny and entertaining. It was the first book I've really enjoyed in years. Next to that would be "Pillars of the Earth" by Ken Follett. This one tested my new resolve to read, with it's length, many many characters, twists and turns and years in the plot. But hey, I haven't been reading again long enough to really chose a smashing good favorite book. Years ago when I was an addictive reader my favorites included all of the books by Jane Austin, Thomas Hardy, Tolstoy and other classics.

Today is Mom's beauty shop day, so I usually take my reading along, nothing too deep with all the distractions there. I just chose one on my iPad that I haven't read: "How Not to Act Old" by Pamela Redmond Satran. One passage in the introduction reads: "You thought you'd be cool forever. And then, seemingly overnight, the evil young changed all the rules and you're left feeling... well, definitely something other than awesome." Now that's something I can definitely identify with. Should be good.

TGIF! Have a good one and a great weekend too.

Memory Lane

Ever get lost on memory lane for a whole day? Rummaging through photos here has me shutting the door on the "shoulds" again. I "should" be continuing my de-cluttering project, but I'm not. So there! hehe

My 50 year high school class reunion will be next summer, so I began by looking through old photos and found some laughable ones.

Freshman initiation was a sort of rite of passage back in 1958. This was before the paranoia about "bullying" and "hazing" set in. Or maybe there just wasn't the mean spirited behavior back then. Anyway, we girls in the class of '62 had to wear a man's slicker, 5 buckle overshoes (or maybe it was plow shoes) on the wrong feet, pincurls on one side of the head, a tall dunce cap and a green spot in the middle of our forehead, and carry an umbrella. We were given a verse to recite and had to carry a rug to kneel and pay homage to the lofty seniors who demanded it. This lasted a week and the last evening parents and everyone gathered in the gym for an initiation ceremony. There each freshman was given some funny or demeaning task to perform. I had to put a boy's hair up in pincurls. 1958 was the height of the long greasy ducktailed hair. YUCK!

I guess in today's lingo this is me and my BFF's in ye olde DIY photo booth.










This isn't a sign of senility is it?



I mean it's not like I'm living in the past...



(to be continued - I have miles to go here)

Wandering off to find some lunch... hmmm

We Choose To Remember

Well, anyway.

So much for de-cluttering.  Well, I did some today, but not at my house.  Fridays are Mom's beauty shop days and since she moved to the nursing home, I go and take her there.  Then after her appointment she usually has a list of  "stuff" she wants to get from her house.  She still has a fully furnished house with at least as many possessions as I have.  (Don't tell her I said so, but just as much clutter too.)  Well, anyway I have half my pickup loaded with my clutter ready for charity, but now the other half got filled up with some of hers.  The good news is that it's canned goods and food that would otherwise go to waste.  So it won't clutter up her pantry now, and it won't be in mine forever.  There is at least another pickup load that I'll need to go back and box up to take to the local food pantry.  Hmmm, feels like I'm ending up de-cluttering two houses.  Might just take me the rest of my life, or at least the functional years I have left.


So for a little R & R this afternoon, I browsed for some music.  I was blown away by these teens from Italy last night on Idol!  Isn't music nice on a cloudy rainy day.  Just lifts me out of the doldrums (and the clutter).

Back Again

Wow, been a while since I came here.  Seems like our vacation in Branson sort of threw me off my usual routines.  That can be a good thing now and then, but I really want to pick up some of the better habits I left behind.  One of them was blogging.  I still resist making binding commitments  to anything that's not absolutely necessary though.  It just seems like our lives (or at least mine) are too full of the "shoulds", like "I should do this" or "I should do that".  I made up my mind when I retired that I'd chuck the shoulds.  (Spell check doesn't seem to like that word either.)


Well, anyway, I don't have much else to say.  Just need to get on with the day and more de-cluttering my house. I have this sense of urgency about getting rid of all this excess rummage sale, thrift shop, drag me down fodder that I've stuffed in every nook and cranny of this large house.  


In the meantime, let's have another cuppa coffee, and maybe a little music to go with it.

High Flight

Lt. Edward Rody Ryan

September 21, 1921 ~ April 5, 1944

My Dad

High Flight

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth. 

And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings; 

Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth. 

Of sun-split clouds - and done a hundred things 
You have not dreamed of 

- wheeled and soared and swung. 

High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there,

I've chased the shouting wind along, 

and flung my eager craft through footless halls of air ....

Up, up the long, delirious burning blue. 

I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace. 

Where never lark, or ever eagle flew — 

And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod. 

The high untrespassed sanctity of space, 

Put out my hand, and touched the face of God. 

by John Gillespie Maggee, Jr.

American Volunteer RCAF

KIA, December 11, 1941

Soldier, rest!  Thy warfare o'er,

Sleep the sleep that knows not breaking,

Dream of battled fields no more,

Days of danger, nights of waking.

~Sir Walter Scott~
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"When we've been here ten thousand years
Bright shining as the sun.
We've no less days to sing God's praise
Than when we've first begun."

What hopeful words!  The day will come when time will no longer exist, and I will finally meet my Savior and my Heavenly Father.  But I also look forward to meeting this father for the first time!

Then this hole in my heart will be healed.


http://www.354thpmfg.com/EdwardR.Ryan.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8grTsZjXDJ4

Lightening the Load

Let's see, do I have anything of any value to say today?  Quite honestly, no but that has never stopped me before.  I did read something very enlightening this morning.  An article said fat cells shrink with aging!  So chalk another benefit up to senior hood!  (Let's just ignore the other statement that muscle cells shrink too.  And I'm not even going to look into what happens to brain cells.)


I am making some headway on clearing the clutter.  Got the sandbags out of my pickup yesterday and hauled a large bag of unwanted clothing to a donation bin.  Plans for this weekend include taking an old mattress to the landfill and more unwanted items to a charity thrift shop.  Clutter and "stuff" can be such a burden.  Springtime is just such a good time to lighten the load!  


Next week we will be leaving for my sister's house and then travelling with them to Branson, MO for a week.  So after some more de-cluttering comes packing for the trip.  I'm famous for over packing, but I'm going to try hard to avoid that this time.  (Seems like I've said that before?)  The older I get, the less I want to carry though, so that helps.


Well, time to get on with the day.  Can't just sit here waiting for my fat cells to shrink.  You don't suppose that's just and April Fool's joke do you?