Surprise!!

Recently, I caught up with an older friend I hadn't seen for a while. When I asked what was new, she replied, “Well, I have a new brother and a different father than I thought I had!” She proceeded to tell a complicated story that started with her daughter, who was doing genealogy research, and ended with a DNA test.

I was shocked. Even though this kind of stuff is the bread and butter of TV plots, I'd never known anyone in real life who found out something like this. I have friends with adoption stories, but no one with a story quite like this to tell. And what makes it even more remarkable is that this woman is in her 80's and her living brother is in his 90's. After I closed my dropped jaw, I asked her how she felt about this new development. She said that she was still processing things, but some pieces of her childhood made more sense now. The next week, her daughter was going to take her to meet her new half brother. She wasn't sure how she felt about that either. She was having a hard time wrapping her mind around an 80 year history and identity that had suddenly changed.

Since my visit with her, I've thought a lot about how I'd feel if something like this happened to me. Intellectually, I know that I would still be who I was and a past that I didn't even know about for most of my life wouldn't matter. But the emotional part of me started to think what if someone told me that my father wasn't my father. Or if I had siblings that I didn't know. That made me feel very unsettled. We each have a personal story that we tell ourselves and others--who our parents are, where we've lived, what happened in third grade, etc. I don't know if I'd be ready to tell a new story all of a sudden.

But that is what life is about and that's what makes each of our stories so interesting—there is always something new waiting for us around the corner.

Thankful Sunday--July 13, 2014

I am thankful for fresh blueberries.

Yesterday, Theo and I went blueberry picking in Uncle Billy's patch. Among Theo, me, and the dog, I'm surprised that we actually made it home with some. Blueberries right off the bush are so good. :)

A Trip to the Beach

Ward and I recently returned from a trip to the beach with his family and a good time was had by all--including me. You see, I'm not a beach person--meaning when I think about going to the beach, I don't think about the mesmerizing waves, interesting sea shells, and cool ocean breezes. I think about the burning sun and the annoying sand.

You might say the beach is not in my blood. I didn't grow up going to the beach, in fact I didn't see any ocean of any kind until after I graduated college. My family was more of the mountain type-- both for living and vacationing. When I finally gazed upon the vast waters of the Atlantic, I was fascinated, but not drawn to it. I think the main reason for that was the sun--it's my enemy. You see, I'm very fair--so fair that if it were up to me, we wouldn't need the word tan in the English vocabulary (at least as a verb). My skin has two colors--translucent white and red. It never takes a visit at the in-between color of tan. So while I was looking forward to spending time with Ward's family, I was not looking forward necessarily to doing that at the beach.

But I needn't have worried. Ward's family arranged the perfect trip for a non-beach-lover like me. We had a big house right on the beach where I could watch the mesmerizing waves from a balcony that was shaded. Our location also meant that I could take a quick trip down to the water without a big production of carrying everything I think I might need. But best of all, was the general area. We visited Nags Head, NC, which besides having very nice beaches, also has a lot of interesting history. So during the sunny times in the middle of the day, we explored the surrounding area instead of spending it on the hot sand. As I said, a good time was had by all.

Do I think I'll be vacationing at the beach on a regular basis now since I've had this positive experience? Perhaps. But for now, I'm just relishing the fact that I spent several days at the beach and I didn't get a sunburn!! Miracles do happen.

Here are a few pictures from out trip.

We woke each morning to a beautiful sunrise.

We visited Kitty Hawk and the Wright Brothers Museum.

 

We watched fireworks that had been postponed because of Hurricane Arthur.

We saw charter fishing boats come in and display their catch for the day. One of the kids' games during this was to touch the eyeball of a fish.

We took a family kayak trip through the Alligator River swamps.

My skilled nephew and brother-in-law used only paddle boards on our swamp trek.

We climbed the spiral stairs to the top of the Bodie Island Lighthouse.

We visited The Elizabethan Gardens. These were on Roanoke Island, the location of the Lost Colony.

We spent one hot afternoon visiting a nicely air conditioned aquarium.

And we finished each day with a beautiful sunset.

Food Waste Friday and True Food Confessions-July 4, 2014

It's time for Food Waste Friday, when the Frugalgirl encourages us to post pictures from the previous week of wasted food from our household. This accountability hopefully will help us to be more careful with our food and maybe save some money. Also, I am using this public forum to encourage us to eat out less which includes better meal planning. You can follow how we are doing in this endeavor by reading True Food Confessions. Occasionally, if our eating is going okay, I'll talk about some other food topic.

This Week's Food Waste

NONE

We've been doing pretty well preventing food waste recently. Today to continue with this vigilance, we will have to plan our meal around the refrigerator vegetable drawer. The only thing that we know for sure that we're having for today's 4th of July cookout are hamburgers. After a look in the fridge, those will need to be supplemented with grilled zucchini, mushrooms, and onions along with a green salad. Also, Theo wants to saute some radishes. I've never had anything but raw radishes, so I'm interested in how those will turn out. Anyway, I think the fridge will get pretty clean with the above menu and hopefully next week I can also report no food waste.

True Food Confessions

When we haven't been having takeout Chinese or Subway sandwiches, here are a few things we've been eating. We have been enjoying greens from the garden for both salads and cooking. Also, we resurrected the ever-favorite foil meal and experimented with Portobella mushrooms that we found on sale. Add in a couple of casseroles, and all in all, it's been pretty good eating around here.

 As some of you may have noticed, I've stopped posting every week about our eating. There have been a couple of reasons for this, the biggest one being that I got distracted by other things and got out of the habit of taking food pictures. However overall, I'd say that we've been doing pretty well. With just two of us here most of the time, a little cooking goes a long way. Thank goodness we like leftovers. However, we are slipping more and more into takeout for dinner, so it's time to get back on track. Next week that is. Now it's time to head to the beach. :)

Watch this turtle

As we all know, there are thousands probably millions of videos posted out there and after a while they all start to blur. However, I saw one yesterday, that was a little different. It showed a turtle and a dog in a very unlikely exchange. In case you haven't seen it yet, take a look. I think you'll enjoy it.

Dog and Turtle 

(I can't seem to get the video embedded, so I'm including the link instead.)