Homage to My Husband

August 16- 10 things you love about your significant other (or kids or pets).

My husband has wonderful qualities. That's why I married him, of course.

He is: (in no particular order)

1. Steadfast
2. Kind
3. Intelligent
4. Tall
5. Loving
6. Cautious
7. Hard-working
8. Fun
9. Handsome
10. Responsible

Helping me up the hill at Newgrange, Ireland, 2007

Fishing at Cochiti Lake, New Mexico 2009

He made his own beer, 2009

Anniversary cruise to the Caribbean, 2010

Mother's Day at the baseball game, 2011

Who Is Responsible For Educating Our Children

August 13- What type of schooling do you currently or plan to do with your children?

You may know by now that my children are grown. However, when they were little I wanted to homeschool. At that time, homeschooling was still illegal in some states, and there was quite a bit of controversy surrounding it.

By the time my first one got to school age, we had made a major move across the country. The job my husband had taken fell through after three months. No one was hiring 40-year-old white males. Wrong age, wrong color, wrong gender. I came to hate affirmative action.

As a consequence, I went to work. My son went to kindergarten at a public school. He was quite gifted in math, though he had trouble reading and spelling. At that time, there was a part-time gifted program, but the child had to read. I wanted to move him up to first grade, but the teachers and principal argued against it, saying he would suffer socially. I caved in. The principal said that it was obvious he had had a lot of exposure to learning environments---whatever that meant---and to keep doing it.

Reducing the National Debt

August 12- What's an eco-friendly organization that you could get behind and support?

It's FREE!

Isn't that eco-friendly?

It's always available, in the right amount, at the right temperature, at the right time.
It prevents illnesses, including obesity.
It's a renewable resource. 
It prevents death.

How much more convincing do you need?

The Animals That Share Our Home

August 10- Share a pet that you have or had in the past.

My goodness, do you realize how many pets one can claim in nearly 60 years of living! If you are an animal lover like me, that can add up to a lot. Many of my pets lived long, loving lives, though some got away too quickly for me. Just two years ago we lost two 19-year-old cats. The same year we also lost two old dogs. That was a rough 12 months.

For the past 15 or so years I've kept chickens which all got names. They say if you name something, it becomes your pet. Currently, I have Opal and her chick Pebbles, Rocky, Garnet, and Ruby. There is also Rooster, but he's not a pet, just a nuisance. We also have a duck named Quackenbush.

Garnet checking out Quackenbush's makeshift pond.

While my daughter is away at college,  I take care of her dog Peanut. Peanut has lived with us since she was about 8-weeks old, and she is now about 6-years old. About two years ago we adopted a tuxedo cat that we named Clara Bow. She has the most unusual marking on her face that looks like a white mustache. It took me a little while to get used to it because it was odd looking to me. Now I don't notice it; it's just part of her character. When we got her, she had never been outside. We planned on keeping her that way too, but she was so fascinated by the activity going on outside that we started letting her out in the yard. At first she would just go out and look around, then come back into the house. Now she is a regular "barn cat", as my husband likes to call her.

Clara Bow

Peanut

No One Will Ever Call Me An Artist

Are you an artist?? Show some artwork or doodling you've done. Don't do art, share something you like then.



I am NO artist. I have an eye for color and composition. It just doesn't translate itself to the paper. I'm glad I can craft, so that I have an outlet for these qualities. They also help with things like arranging pictures on the wall and arranging furniture. I like balance and symmetry. I like movement.Those things attract my attention. But color is always first. The more colors in something, the more I'm attracted to it. My shop logo and my business cards both have a lot of color in them.

I like impressionism, but my husband doesn't share my taste. He likes photos, so much of the work on our walls is photos. I don't mind it too much because they are usually photos of places we've been. I took some photos of some of the artwork on our living room walls. I couldn't help the glare.

Some Things I Didn't Know When I Was Young

July 29- How does your life measure up to the vision you had when you were younger?


When I was younger, I never thought I would be so, so tired
When I was younger, I never thought I would be fat
When I was younger, I never thought I could be so happy
When I was younger, I never knew what it meant to love---until I had children
When I was younger, I never knew what a marriage was meant to be---until I married Mike

Mike, on our 25th wedding anniversary

Me, on our 25th wedding anniversary

Super Woman

July 26-If you could have a super power, what would it be?



Has it really been a week since I last posted? Well, it doesn't surprise me too much. On the weekend, I participated in a small fundraiser then dashed off to church for choir rehearsal. The choir sang in one service Saturday evening and three services Sunday morning. It was all I could do Monday to summon myself to the bathroom. When I do so much at once, the fibromyalgia reacts by putting me to bed.

I've also been crocheting like mad to increase my inventory. Do you want to know just how madly I've been crocheting? Enough so that I've got wicked tendonitis in my right arm. I have been miserable today, not to mention anxious as well because I can't crochet.

So, super power, huh? Is there such a one as Mad Crocheter? Certainly at one time I wanted to be Super Mom. Some days I'd settle for Captain Green Thumb, or Master Chef. I didn't participate in the Super Hero comic book life style. I didn't have brothers to encourage me, and the only time I got comic books is when I happened to go to the grocery store with my grandmother. Back then it was Archie and Jughead, Little Lulu, Richie Rich (the poor little rich boy), and Casper the Friendly Ghost. Pretty tame stuff, right?

Is there a reverse of the Incredible Hulk, where you lose weight faster than a speeding bullet? How about a Flash for housework? Yeah, that would be cool. I could be like Scooby Do and find all the missing socks that have disappeared into the washing machine black hole. Oh, no, Scoob, that's not a real super power.

This really isn't a super power either, but I'd like to have something like Floo Powder that would allow me to visit all the people that are far from me.  I could pop in on my Mother when she was having a bad day, or show up on my son's doorstep when he is being bad. No, revise that. I'd show up when he is being good--reward the good behavior, right?

There you have it. I hope you have been more creative than I have.

Into My Pocket It Goes

July 20- What would you do with the $ if you won the lottery?

After yesterday's seriousness (yes, I read every blog that posted on FB), why not inject some levity into the blog. So I'm going to be downright selfish in what I would do with lottery money. No giving to the poor, no  Habitat for Humanity donations.  Nope, in my pocket it goes. Then I would

• 10% to God
• pay off our mortgage and other debt
• pay off kids' school loans
• buy vehicles for me and hubby
• fix a little house in the back so my mother can live with us
• make repairs to our house and yard
• buy a horse
• take several cruises
• get a wardrobe makeover
• spend money on the kids
• ok, so I'd put some in savings
• buy yarn
• donate to Fibromyalgia Network
• get central air installed
• get new computers
• buy hubby the ginormous screen tv he wants with surround sound
• new furniture
• hire a yardman and cleaning lady (yeah, those are stereotypes)
• put some more in savings
• donate to the local Girl Scout council to fix up the camps
• travel

My selfishness has run its course. Hopefully, I have some left to give to a charity, but which one? I could just give it to the United Way. You know, I had a friend who was raped a couple of years ago. She would appreciate it if I gave to the Rape Crisis Center. I would like to support the prison ministry from my church. If the amount was a super win, I would create a free shuttle service for homebound people to get to the store and doctor appointments.

Do I Want To Be Responsible For Changing Any Law?

July  19- If you were president or prime minister for a day, what's one law  you would change?

Laws. Chaos would reign if we did not have them.  According to one site, New Mexico has 77 chapters of laws, with each chapter having multiple articles and each article having multiple sections. For example, the chapter on elections has 24 articles; article one under elections has 25 sections.

Would I want to change any of them, one of them? When faced with so much to dig through just for one measly state's laws, I can't imagine how much I'd have to dig through for federal laws. Look at Obamacare. There were so many pages (over 2000) on that one law that none of the representatives and senators read it. At least, that's the rumor.

I couldn't just willy-nilly pick a law to change without knowing the full extent that the change would have on society. Law isn't black and white. There are so many grey areas, and that's why lawyers outnumber physicians in the US.

A site called Legal Reform Now states that  as of July 2012, we have "1,143,358 lawyers. And our nation's 192 accredited and often subsidized law schools are graduating 40,000 new lawyers each year as they have consistently for the last 20 years. In a decade we will have 1,500,000 lawyers. A 50% increase."

Ranting on RAOKs

July 17- A random act of kindness


Kindness is a virtue that spans the globe as gleaned from sayings of Confuscious, Shakespeare, Mark Twain, and Mother Theresa, to name just a few. A quick internet search turns up numerous quotations from a wide variety of people and cultures. Yet I could not find one quote from Jesus Christ. It was as if He didn't exist, or someone with a liberal bent couldn't admit that He had anything worthwhile saying on the subject of kindness.

Jesus had so much compassion that He couldn't help but practice random acts of kindness. Whether it was healing the blind, raising the lame, opening the ears of the deaf, or cleansing skin from leprosy, Jesus did it because He loved and had compassion.He had compassion on the crowds who walked miles to hear Him teach, so He performed the miracle of the loaves and fishes. He had compassion on the woman who touched the hem of His robe. He had compassion on Mary and Martha when He raised Lazarus from the dead.

I got both sad and upset in my search. Even if you don't believe He is the son of God, He had some awesome things to say about kindness. Actually, He didn't have to say anything at all---all you had to do was observe His actions. We are to imitate Him. We are to reflect His light onto the world. We are to love our enemies.

The Room-With-No-Name

July 16- Favorite room in your house

 In the 1930s when the first part of this house was built, it looked like a shoe box stood up on its end. One large room downstairs and two bedrooms upstairs. Legend has it that to reach the upstairs, you had to go outside because that's where the staircase was. There is still an outside door on the second floor.

The upstairs door to nowhere

The owners eventually added a downstairs master bedroom with bath, enclosed a porch, and added a great room. I'm not sure of the order they were done in. The man was a cabinet maker by trade, and all the woodwork done in this house is superb. There are built in bookcases, and the dining room has a built in china cabinet with a glass front.

All the rooms had been painted white, and every room in the house had carpet. Yes, the kitchen and bathrooms had carpet. That is not a great mix for a family with two small children. You add one 5-year-old-boy + one gallon of milk + a carpeted kitchen, and you get a smelly mess that is way too hard to clean up. So that was the first carpet to go.

Now, we have beautiful Italian tile throughout the downstairs, and the great room walls are painted two shades of blue. 

In 2004, the walls of the great room were still all white, and we had this hideous pale green carpet

Same space in 2006

It is hard for me to decide which room is my favorite. Most days it's my cozy desk in the room-with-no-name. It is this rectangular space, right off the kitchen, so it may have once been a small dining area. Really small. What happened is, when they moved the staircase from the outside to the inside, they used up quite a bit of space. This room-with-no-name is about 2/3 its original size, just enough room for an L-shaped computer desk. If you're not careful walking by, you can bump your leg into the corner of the desk. Oddly, coming from the living room, you have to step down a small step. And going out through the enclosed porch we call our den, you have to step up. It's my sunken room, and I'm always having to tell people to watch their step.

The room-with-no-name

This photo was taken in the winter of 2006, I think. You can see the staircase behind us. The picture was taken from the kitchen. It's where I'm sitting right now. We have a wireless printer now, so I have more room on the desk. I've lost 40 pounds and the daughter has grown up. Huh, I just realized I have a different computer and monitor too. Same desk, same dog, same water cooler on the left, same chalkboard on the right. Some things change and some things stay the same. But it is home.

Routine? I Don't Have No Stinkin' Routine

July 15- Got any good makeup tips/routines?



Oh, man, seriously! You are asking me about my makeup tips and routines? After almost 60 years, I don't have a routine. I have few wrinkles, though I do have rosacea. When I was younger, the rosacea would make me break out, but nothing like some people get acne. My skin has changed over the years so that it is much drier and less resilient, but that is just age.

I actually do like wearing makeup. It's the taking off that I don't like. I just hate routine of any sort. So to expect me to always wash off my makeup is unrealistic. The best thing for me to do is to not wear makeup if I know I'm going to be too lazy to take it off properly.

Fortunately, makeup has evolved to be less toxic for our skin, so the occasional night of laziness hasn't hurt me. The makeup I like to use these days is mineral makeup. As long as I moisturize well before putting it on, I don't have to worry about it looking too dry. That is preferable to me than looking like I've got goo in what wrinkles I do have.

Then, joy of joys, I discovered disposable face washing cloths. I can't believe I'm saying this, because I'm such a stickler for not using disposable anythings, but having these around means I get my face cleaned more often than than not.

On particular thing that has changed the way I wear makeup is that I can't see the way I used to. And, you know, you have to take off your glasses to put your makeup on---especially mascara. I remember an occasion when I was with my cousin about 10 years ago. We were getting dressed in a hotel room, and I didn't have my magnifying mirror. She was horrified when I got done with my mascara, and I had more on my face than my eyelashes. "Don't you know where your eyelashes are?" she exclaimed as she tried to get the specks off my face.

So I guess my best tip would be to invest in a good magnifying mirror, and keep plenty of Q-tips handy.

What Did I Teach My Children?

July 14---One piece of advice you want to give to your child


 When I was learning to be a La Leche League Leader, one of the pearls of wisdom I came away with was regarding giving advice. We were warned away from giving advice to moms that came to us for help. Now that may seem the antithesis of what LLL stood for, right? If you go to someone for help, you usually want advice.

Well, maybe not. Look at it this way. If someone gave you some advice, and you took it, and it proved to not work out for you, who are you going to blame? However, if someone offered you a choice, perhaps a suggestion that has worked for some or one that has worked for others in the same situation, are you less likely to blame that person if the choice you picked didn't work for you?

So, when the blog prompt was about giving advice, that scenario popped into my head. And along with that, I wondered, "Did I give advice to my children, or did I try to teach by example?" Also, did I aim to give my children tools to live by, or did I simply teach them by rote?

What is advice, really? Merriam-Webster's defines it as recommendation regarding a decision or course of conduct. Dictionary.com is not much different: an opinion or recommendation offered as a guide to action, conduct, etc.

Sure, I gave my children advice on more than one occasion, but it usually wasn't in the form of advice as much as it was an expectation of behavior. I mean, I wouldn't say,"Son, I advise you to go to school." No, it was more like, "Son, you don't have a choice in this matter. You WILL go to school. And you will thank me for it later."

But when you give them tools for living, you show or tell them why they should make such and such decision. A very simple example would be to explain why you sort your clothes before washing. I have it on authority that despite giving my kids this excellent tip on laundering their clothes, they seldom do so now that they are away from home. Come to think of it, I didn't sort much laundry when I was their age either. I think it was because I had to use a laundromat, and it was cheaper to throw all my clothes into one washer. 


My daughter was sitting here with me when I started on this post, and naturally I asked her what was the best piece of advice I gave her. "I dunno," was her answer.  I think it means either 1) my teaching was balanced, or 2) she was too lazy to think. Great, all that mothering for all those years, and no one thing stands out in her mind. *sarcasm*


Finally, it came to me. I could say it was "Love others," "Follow your heart," or even "Do it right the first time" (a favorite of my father's). No, what I want my children to know is how to think for themselves.That their decisions have consequences with which they will have to live. Look before you leap. You made your bed, now lie in it. What are you going to do if everyone else is jumping off the bridge? They all say the same thing. It's what parents for millennia have been trying to teach their children.

My Favorite Vacation

July 12--Talk about a favorite vacation you have taken.

Definition of SERENDIPITY:  the faculty or phenomenon of finding valuable or agreeable things not sought for; also : an instance of this

Examples of SERENDIPITY

1. They found each other by pure serendipity.
2. As they leapfrog from South Africa to Singapore in search of local delicacies, the authors prove again and again that serendipity is the traveler's strongest ally: many of their most memorable meals issue from the hands of generous strangers … —Sarah Karnasiewicz, Saveur, June/July 2  

Origin of SERENDIPITY: from its possession by the heroes of the Persian fairy tale The Three Princes of Serendip. First Known Use: 1754

 Merriam-Webster Dictionary

Why am I going on about SERENDIPITY when this is supposed to be a blog about vacations? Because yesterday I had the urge to blog about our trip to Ireland, and that has been my favorite vacation. So it was serendipitous that I already have a blog to post for today. Yay! I'm not only caught up, but I got ahead. 

The Search for the (Perfect) Ten

July 11--Share 5 or 10 of your favorite blogs or websites.

Since becoming a blogger myself, it has been my pleasure to be introduced to so many other bloggers. The Summer Blog Challenge has been the primary source of my new blogs, as has Pinterest and Facebook.

I can't tell you how I fell into this group of charming young moms that make up most of the Summer Blog Challenge. Just by chance I read someone who mentioned someone, and the next thing I knew, I was on Going Green With the Grizls , the orginator of this blog challenge. Over 140 bloggers signed up for the challenge. Names like mum, mom, mommy, baby, diaper, frugal, green, and giveaways pepper the list. Through this medium, they have formed a small world, a community, a village in which to raise a child.

I started my blog though to promote my Etsy business. Naturally, I searched for crafting and crocheting blogs. Anything that had to do with yarn and selling, I gravitated towards it. Handmadeology, which calls itself the Science of Handmade, is one of the first I found. I also stumbled across Regretsy (Where DYI Meets WTF) which I read for lessons in what not to do and to get a chuckle at someone else's expense.

From Regretsy. Why a proofreader is helpful. (The error has since been corrected on the seller's site.)

The School of Hard Knocks

July 10--What is the hardest challenge you have been faced with?



After reading some of the other blog posts on this topic, I am humbled by what people are willing to share. There are definitely awful challenges that I have faced that I am reluctant to put out here for people to read. I don't want to be judged for what I've done or what I've gone through. What it boils down to is that I grew up in the school of hard knocks. But I met each challenge, though sometimes reluctantly, and moved on.

Getting through some poor health issues was going to be the one challenge that tried me the most, but in retrospect, perhaps my father being killed in a plane crash when I was pregnant with my son was much more acutely painful. This issue with the fibromyalgia and nerve damage has had a longer impact on my life and continues to try me daily.

I Am Feeling Peevish Today

July 9--What are some of your biggest pet peeves?

You know, I started to say that I'm a grammar-nazi, but I'm not, really. What I dislike is improper word usage. I have the usual favorites: their/there/they're and your/you're (I think that is the worst one). But one that gets me that most people don't have a clue about is fewer/less. You use fewer when it refers to things you can count, and use less when it is about amounts. Here are some examples.

• Fewer raindrops but less rain
• Fewer items in your cart but less groceries
• Fewer miles to drive but less distance to go
• Fewer nurses but less staff
• Fewer pennies but less money
• Less clothing but fewer shirts
• Less pets but fewer cats
• Less fruit but fewer grapes
• Less children but fewer sons (I'm not 100% sure about this one)

Anyway, you get the idea hopefully. When you see that sign at the checkout that says "10 items or less", you can now say, "That should say 10 items or fewer." And you would be correct.

Memorable, Meaningful Music

 July 8--Song lyrics that you find some meaning in.

Music has played an integral part of my life, even before I was born. There is no doubt that I heard my mother playing the piano, felt the movement and rhythm of her body as she played, experienced the vibration of the piano strings as the sound waves passed through her belly into my being.  As a child, I learned to read music and sing, and I even was able to play the piano and violin passably. Later, I taught myself some guitar chords because I loved to sing along with Joan Baez.

Similar to the radio I grew up listening to.

 I still love music though I don't play or sing much any more. I just this year started singing at church again after having been away from choir for over 10 years. I haven't played the piano either since I started working on Cozy Corner Crochets (Etsy). I can still play the radio, though!

When I wrote my post on tradition, I linked a YouTube video of Tevyev singing from The Fiddler On The Roof. That musical made such an impression on me that the tunes are readily recalled. Other musicals, such as The Sound of Music, left me with many memories. Cats is another one that I can play over and over. I haven't seen some of the newer ones, though I did catch some of a televised live performance of the Phantom of the Opera.

My Fear Propels Me to Pay It Forward

July 5--Talk about a fear you have

Back in 1986, we lived in what was a sleepy little beach town in South Florida called Lake Worth. The "Lake" part of it came from an inlet from the Atlantic Ocean that formed a large lagoon protected by a barrier island that became known as Palm Beach. The "Worth" part of it came from the same "Worth" as Fort Worth. -- a general in the US army during the mid-1800s.

About the only use for the lagoon is that it is now part of the Intracoastal Waterway, and it is used by boaters for skiing and as passageway to the ocean.

Barracuda are attracted to shiny objectss

My husband and I, BK (before kids) would often cross the bridge over the lake to access a public beach on the Atlantic. There, in the quite of the early morning, we enjoyed an hour of snorkling, observing fish and invertebrates such as sand dollars and conchs. We learned early on to not wear any jewelry, including wedding bands, because the shiny objects attracted barracuda. Seeing a couple of them swimming together made my heart freeze. The thought of those rows of pointy teeth made me want to be invivisble.


A long fishing pier had been built at the beach, and it attracted surfers that liked the breakers that develped there. I understand that part of the pier was heavily damaged (washed away) from a couple of hurricanes in the early 2000s, but it has since been rebuilt.

Beach-goers near Lake Worth pier.

AK (after kids), it was only natural that we introduce our children to the ocean we loved. My first experience with a baby on the beach was slightly traumatic. My friend and I took a beach umbrella and all the paraphenalia to protect my darling from the sun---towels, hat, sunscreen, long-sleeved shirt. Colin napped on the towel in the shade for a bit. When he woke up, we learned that sand sticks to sunscreen, and he shortly was covered in sand. He protested loudly enough that I decided to carry him up the beach to a shower to rinse off the sand.

Being a little Irishman, his skin was very white. When he cried, he would turn bright red. So, here I was, carrying this red, bawling infant up the beach, and we became the object of derision. "Cover that baby up! Look at how sunburned he is." "We should have you arrested for child abuse." Back at the umbrella, I told my friend to pack it up, we were getting out of there.

It took me several months to get up the courage to take him back to the beach. By then he was toddling around. He loved it. He would dig in the sand with his little shovel and pail, and we would play in the warm ocean waves. Soon I was pregnant with Molly, but we continued to frequent the beach.

Surfers near Lake Worth Pier

One morning, Colin and I (now heavily pregnant) were bouncing around the surf near the pier. It felt so good to me to get in the buoyant water to take the weight of a heavy baby off my back.(She ended up being 9' 14"!) He was floating in one of those inflatable rings, and I was holding his hand. Suddenly, an undertow sucked him out of the ring, and he disappeared under the water. Screaming, I tried to run after him, but my pregnant belly would not break through the water very fast. I yelled at some nearby surfers, "My baby, my baby, look for my baby!"

Frantically, I plodded further out into the water and still he was nowhere to be seen. What seemed like several minutes was probably only several seconds. Suddenly, released from the pull of the undertow, he popped up not far from me. He had a dazed and confused look on his face and was otherwise unharmed.

I will never forget those horrifying moments when my child was ripped away from me and there was nothing I could do about it. That is my greatest fear---not being able to protect my children. Now, they are grown, and since they live away from home, I'm not privy to their activities. It has been hard adjusting to not being there every step of the way. I know this is normal, but I still retain the fear from that lifechanging  moment when my child was lost.

So many mothers lose their children. I was a fortunate one that regained the life of my baby. Recently, a group of crocheters on Facebook formed a community that sews memory blankets for parents who have lost a child through illness or other tragedy. We each crochet 6 inch squares that one of the members will sew together to form the blanket. It is then sent to the family along with notes and cards from the crocheters that helped created the blanket.

One of the memory blankets being created

Within a month, the group has grown to over 300 members, and we have made blankets for almost 10 families. If you are interested in joining this group, it can be found at Wrapped In Love. We would love to have you.

I Hope You Are Enjoying Your Freedoms

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.