Flashback Friday-

Awww...Look at Maggie, the sweet innocent first communion girl of about 1970. Don't let her fool you! I remember this photo op well, and she was being the biggest brat ever! Brownie camp had started the night before, and my mom was to drive a carload of us up later after we made our First Communion. I was very impatient to get on the road and my dad kept promising, "Just one more shot."

I have been thinking a lot lately about what it means to be a good person, daughter, sister, mother, wife. And about how you can ever be all of those at the same time. My pastor sent me a card the other day, referring to the fact that I am in that "sandwich" phase, where we try to juggle the needs of our spouses and kids with the needs of our aging parents. I am not sure it can be done. So I stew, as I sit with my 80 year old mother in the nursing home I promised her years ago I would not send her to, while my husband does the school transportation that I agreed to do back when we chose the perfect-in-every-way-for-our-boy-except-so-far-away school. Like the Maggie in the photo, maybe I can convince them all I am "good" if I paste on an innocent smile.

Dreaming of Spring

Today I went on a road trip to a quilt exhibit, and then to the Conservatory at Brookside Gardens. Even thought the weather was very grey and gloomy, the flowers inside the conservatory were spectacular, and have me looking forward to Spring, and all of the beautiful colors it brings.

Here are a few of my flower photos to share:

Happy Holidays

Here's hoping you and yours had a great holiday and are looking forward to a happy New Year! As you can see from this photo, we had a lovely white Christmas here in Maryland. (My guys might not have been loving the snow while they were busy digging out the cars, I imagine!) It was sort of nice to be snowed in for a little while, we were forced to spend time together and not worry about our normal daily stresses.




On a sad note, one week ago my wonderful kitty Gracie died rather suddenly. She was a very sweet quiet girl and I will miss her very much. She was my very first cat. We got her from an adoption at Petsmart- her mother had been abused and she was the only survivor of her litter. She loved boxes, catnip toys, racing up and down the stairs, and using her litter box whenever Dad was eating. R.I.P. Gracie, August 2001-December 2009.

Snow Day

Today we are having the first snow of the season! It looks lovely. My planned outing for the day was postponed, hopefully to happen tomorrow. The teenager and I bought groceries (and the required pre-snow bread, milk and toilet paper!) on the way home yesterday. So we are chilling out today in sweats, drinking hot beverages and decorating for the holidays. My Itunes is playing some holiday songs (I love you Jose Feliciano, but I like that I do not have to hear your Feliz Navidad hourly when I choose the tunes.)

The tree is assembled. I have allergies to real trees, so we have a fake one. Along with my husband and I, it is celebrating its 26th Christmas. The lights are in progress. I am going to cheat and make some slice and bake cookies to munch while we hang the ornaments.

Flashback Friday- The Where on Earth Did the Years Go Edition

On Tuesday, my husband and I will celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary, so in response to the Flashback Friday on Christopher and Tia, I dug out our wedding album. The photo above is the cover, and yes, those are our hands and my bouquet. It was silk flowers, so I probably still have it here somewhere.

Here we are, posed up at the altar. We were married at a house of all faiths, a cute little place out in the country where I had flown up from Brownies to Girl Scouts. I was a little shocked at how much the place had shrunk since I was 10 when I went back to reserve it for the wedding. In my fantasy world the place was a palace. Anyway, it was very cute, and there was a covered bridge outside, but it was a bit cold to enjoy it that day.

Remember, this was 1984, back when wedding dresses had sleeves and sometimes even a high collar. I watch that show "Say Yes to the Dress", and I do not think anything in that whole store has sleeves. Brides with shoulders as broad as mine need sleeves. Maybe not huge puffy sleeves, but this was 1984, people! Sometimes I watch that show and wish someone would tell some of those girls that not everyone can wear that tightly fitted sleeveless style. My mom made me this dress and it was fabulous. She made the veil, too. No one would sell us the veil unless we bought the dress from them. Mom had to borrow a friends house to cut out the dress, because she had so much fabric and our house was not deep enough to unfold it all. There were something like 72 buttons, and my dad breathed a sigh of relief when Mom bought them precovered- he was usually her go to guy for covering buttons. I remember sitting in the dining room one weekend and Mom and I sewing on sequins. The enameled pin on the neckline is a family heirloom, I think my great grandfather gave it to my great grandmother. (I better ask my mom and write that down somewhere!)

Here we are making our getaway, but really we were just leaving the church and still had our reception to go. Our reception was evidently quite the party, since 25 years later, people still occasionally tell me so.

Anyway, Happy Anniversary, Honey, and here's hoping our next 25 years together are as wonderful as the first!

Flashback Friday- The Veteran's Day Edition

I know Veteran's Day is past, but I wanted to concentrate on it for my flashback Friday post. Here is a photo of my Granddad in his Army uniform- he served in France (I think) in World War I.
Here he is (on the left), on Memorial Day 1968. He was very active in the American Legion (VFW? I will have to look this up.) This is the Granddad I remember- I was 6 years old that year and still little enough to sit on his lap when we would go visit him. I had other girl cousins, but they lived far away, so I got to be the princess.He had a stroke and passed away when I was in 7th grade. Thank you, Granddad, and to all the others who went away to fight for the rest of us.

A Time for Gratitude

My family took a beautiful drive this weekend through rural southwest Virginia. I had a lot of time to think (and nap, but that is not my point!) I kept coming back to how grateful I am for so many things, especially this time of year.

First, Veteran's Day is this week, and I am grateful to all of the veterans and the current active duty service members for the sacrifices they have made to try to keep us all safe.

Second, I am thankful for my family. This weekend was a nice opportunity to spend some time together, as we went down to hear my older son sing in a concert. When he comes home, he has so many people to see, our time together is so limited. I was reminding my husband how it seems so long ago when we used to dream about when the boys would be 15 and 20, like it was so far off, and now it is only months away.

I am very thankful for my husband- in a few weeks, we will be celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary. It seems like just yesterday we were dating. He really is my best friend. He is so supportive of me in everything I do.

I am thankful we have resources. Today, I guess because of the sudden warm weather, there were a lot of people begging at intersections. That got me thinking about our financial life. We might not be rolling in the dough- our home is modest and our car has nearly 150,000 miles on it, but we don't want for anything and I am quite thankful for that.

Any of you who know me in person, know that I am often anxious. I am thankful that we live a sort of low key life, so that I can try to keep myself from getting totally frazzled. Don't get me wrong, we are often busy, but I think because my guys all seem to have an easygoing attitude, that keeps me grounded. Today I stopped in to check out a thrift shop near my younger son's school. It was a huge place, and evidently Monday is some sort of sale day, so it was packed. When I got to the register, two women were there screaming obscenities at each other. It seemed that one of them had interfered with the other's turn to get waited on. I just can't imagine what slight would be worth treating another person so harshly.

I am thankful that my younger son is getting baptized in a few weeks, that is the answer to many prayers I whispered.

What are you thankful for today?