A Patient Mother

 Today is my birthday, so it's time to rerun a birthday post from the past. 

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I am thankful that I had a patient mother.

Today is my birthday which has me thinking about when I was a baby. Of course, I don't remember anything about my first year, but I have the stories I've been told.

Apparently, I was late in arriving. Very late. My mother had to wait three weeks past her due date for me to be born.  My parents sent my older sisters to stay with my grandmother in the next town when the event was eminent or so they thought. My sisters were there so long that my parents visited them on the weekends. My mother had made them a box of surprises for their stay with ribbons attached to a trinket that they got to choose everyday. However, the box emptied before they were back home. During what must have been a very miserable extra three weeks, I am thankful for my mother's patience for my arrival.

Me at 4 months. True to form, I had a cold in
one eye for this appointment.

My mother said that before I came she had time to clean the entire house and she even waxed the kitchen floor. She thought things would go smoothly with me. The house was in order and this was her third child, so she knew what she was doing. But then I came. And I cried. And cried. And cried. For the first six months, I cried so much that I burst a tear duct and herniated my naval. The neighbors used to take me in the car with them while they were delivering groceries to try to calm me. I am thankful for my mother's patience during the very noisy, exhausting time of when I was trying to settle into the world.

Soon after there was finally some quiet in the house (as much as you can have with a baby and two small children), I got pneumonia and was in the hospital for two weeks. The hospital was in another town and my mother spent all of her time with me while the rest managed somehow at home. Once I was back home, my oldest sister remembers the extra care that I still required. For my mother's patience while taking care of a sick baby, I am thankful.

Throughout the years, I have heard various stories about when I was a baby, but never did the stories come with any guilt or resentment. Just another story from my mother like the one when they had to call the fire department to get my sister's foot out of a drain. So for having had a very patient mother who gave me a great start to life despite how hard I made it for her, I am very thankful.

Well, that's annoying.

 My life is good. I know that. I have lived through enough stressful times in the past to fully realize when times are good. But that doesn't mean that I don't get annoyed sometimes. It's just part of being human. Can you tell, I'm working up to some complaining?

Here it goes. My email wasn't working for about a week despite the fact that all of the settings were identical to my husband's. Most of my communication happens through email, so it was a problem. One that I could awkwardly work around, but annoying all the same. I am happy to report after many hours of trouble shooting, my email is working again. However, now Ward's has stopped working. Hopefully the fix we found for mine will work for his.

And even more annoying is the bill pay feature with my bank has stopped working. Every time we try to go in, it takes us back to the sign in screen. We were on the phone with their tech support for an hour the other night before they said they would have to escalate the case because they don't know what's going on. This is a problem. Some of our bills go straight to the site. Almost all of our bills get payed through here. Bills are due and I can't get to them. We do have an ipad mini that we could use, but it's old enough that the bank software doesn't work on it any more. Anyway, I'm gonna have to start figuring out other ways to pay things. Doable, but tedious--and annoying.

And another thing that annoyed me, even though it was partly my fault. We get our cat food delivered through Chewy (prescription food, good price), and usually they put it on our front porch. Well, on Friday, two cases of it got dropped off at the end of our driveway right in the middle. So while leaving to go feed Miss Lander's cat, I ran over it. I didn't see it in the backup camera or the mirrors. Anyway, what a mess! It took about an hour to clean it all up and to see if any of the cans were still usable. I managed to salvage a few and called Chewy. They were able to file a complaint with UPS for me and sent me a new order. I offered to pay for it because it wasn't their problem, but they said no. Chewy has the best customer service in the world and I'm not complaining about that.

And finally, this is not annoying, just disturbing, even though it was totally natural. I checked one of our bird boxes last week to see if the house wren eggs had hatched. Inside, I found a rat snake eating the babies, next to a dead mother. I know that its all part of nature and all of God's creatures have to eat, but I don't want to see it up close and personal. Ward kindly volunteered to clean out the box.

Neighborhood flowers

So as not to end with the bird image, here's some good news. The little girl who lives behind us, periodically has a flower stand where she sells flowers from her yard and her grandmother's yard. They are raising money to put a Little Free Library in the neighborhood. Ward and I bought three arrangements to support the cause. They were also giving away yellow squash. We have more zucchini that we can easily process, so we politely said no thanks.

Until next time...

Tuesday4-Movies

Another Tuesday, and time to play along with the Tuesday4. Feel free to join me.

1 A movie theme song will play every time you walk in the room.. what is it? (consider asking family or friends)  I'm not a big movie goer, so my mind was pretty much blank on this question. With a little Googling, I decided I'd like Doo Wah Diddy Diddy by Manfred Mann - at least the first verse. The words speak of confidence with a little silliness. And not to mention that I like the tune. There could be worse ways to enter a room. :)

There she was just a-walkin' down the street, singin'
'Do wah diddy diddy dum diddy do'
Snappin' her fingers and shufflin' her feet, singin'
'Do wah diddy diddy dum diddy do'
She looked good (Looked good)
She looked fine (Looked fine)
She looked good, she looked fine
And I nearly lost my mind

2. What movie, book or TV program could you live in? I don't know if I could live in the book, but I would love to have a garden like the one that Mary and Colin discovered in a Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett. Imagining that garden coming alive, along with Colin, has always been magical to me. 

3. Is there a book/movie/TV quote you often think about or that effects you in some way? I'm sure there is, but I don't think about it often enough to come up with it now. What came to mind was the theme song to Gilligan's Island--a catchy tune with attached nostalgia. Always brings a smile to my face. I'm deep, right? :)

4. OK friend, its your turn to organize our Blogger Movie Night where we get together as a group for snacks and movies!  What movies have you planned for us tonight and what snacks are we going to have? Prepared to be scared all over again. We're going to watch Alfred Hitchcock's Dial M for Murder and have traditional snacks of popcorn, M&Ms, and Junior Mints. I'll throw in some veggies and dip for those who want something a little healthier to snack on. As for drinks simply water and soda. 

Thankful Sunday, July 11, 2021

 I am thankful for a fun outing.

Still Water Farm

Yesterday was a busy day with chores and errands. After we got home, we settled down on our back porch for a rest. The temperatures were warm, but a fan was blowing. Perfect for a little reading. But soon the noise of neighbors' radios and lawn mowers broke the spell. Then I remembered a co-workers band was playing not too far away. We jumped in the car and were at the Stillwater Farm in a few minutes - a new-to-us place. It was a working farm, but had diversified into a microbrewery to support the farm. I'm not a beer drinker, but no problem. I had a enjoyable time, anyway. 

The farm was surrounded by rolling hills and other farms. There was a pavilion with music playing, kids climbing rocks, a food truck, picnic tables, and a hot air balloon. It was a  great way to end a busy day.  So for a fun outing, I am thankful.

The Beginning

 Yesterday, I participated in the Tuesday4 that was about reflections on blogging. One of the questions was how did you come up with the name. My very first blog post ten years ago was about the name, so I'm rerunning here to better answer the question. BTW, I had no idea what my first post was about until I looked it up.

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What's in a name?

I've been toying with writing a blog for a while now and decided it was time to put thoughts into actions. It all seemed so simple. Use one of the free blog sites and start writing. But wait, what was it going to be about and what would I call it? My kids advised me that I needed a subject or it would be nothing more than an online journal. Well, since I'm not that knowledgeable or passionate about any one subject, I decided that it would be personal reflections. My idea was to make comments about things I experience or see around me that other people may be able to relate to. Now what to name it. Not as easy as it would seem. With the millions of blogs out there, there's not much left to choose from.

My first idea was Observations of an everyday boring life. However, it was suggested that I don't need to tell people ahead of time that my life is often boring. Next I played with, Run of the mill, Matter of fact, and So on and so forth. All taken. Next was Watching paint Dry, but that was taken also with actual web cams set up to watch paint dry. How about Dull as Dishwater?  Maybe that was giving too much away ahead of time again. (BTW, the original phrase was supposedly, "Dull as Ditch Water.") 

I was going to have to get creative. The family started brainstorming. Running with safety scissors and Your guess is as good as mine. Taken. My personal favorite was one I thought up- Lend me your nose. A play on Lend me your ear but using nose indicating that you should Take time to stop and smell the roses. 

After several more hours of deep thought, I settled on Live and Learn-Toss and Turn. This title is supposed to indicate that no matter what happens to us, we can always learn from it and the unknown can still be a little scary and cause us to toss and turn. Or maybe the title just means, that I was really tired and the rhyming of the words seemed good enough. This morning my son asked me what name I came up with and after I told him, he replied, "Well, it's not as bad as I thought it would be." I don't think I will ever be able to live down, "Lend me your nose."