One Year Ago Today, Memories of Mom

This sampler is one I made many many years ago, and this picture isn't the best; but it's saying seems so very appropriate. Children are the precious rewards of a loving life.

I made this sampler long ago for my SIL for a Christmas Gift. The 3 names listed are my nephews, but it could say Chuck, Sandy, and Mike. Plug in the names of my 2 brothers and my own name and this is a loving memory of My Mother, who left us one year ago today. She had a loving life, she gave love to us all, she gave us precious memories and we miss her dearly. Though she is no longer with us in the flesh she is with us each and everyday in everything we do. We carry her in our hearts.

Off and on throughout this past year I shared memories with you in alphabetical order. This is memory M

Making Do and Mohican. Making do, Mom was the best ever at that. Through her abilities to make do-- our lives were far richer than they might have been otherwise. She taught us through her actions that you can make do and get by....an important life lesson. One that I think isn't taught nowdays as much as it should be. Making do, stretching the household budget with how you prepare food to not have waste, to utilizing hand me downs, to remaking clothing or repairing clothing. To taking fun filled inexpensive vacations with the focus always being on being together and loving each other.

Mohican, well there's a State Park here in Ohio called Mohican State Park. It's primarily known for canoeing, though fishing, hiking, and camping also exist. I still smile when I think of a canoeing venture there. Mom and Dad in one canoe, hubby and I in another. They got pretty wet, and almost tip at one point. Lots of laughs for sure. Another time, my oldest nephew wanted out of the canoe with his parents (who were shall we say not canoe savvy), and got in with Mom and Dad....he felt saver with them. Good times, good memories.

We love you Mom.

Alphabetical Memories

A=Advice, Afghan, Apples
B=Bread, and Bernie
C=Camping, Creativity and Courage
D=Dancing and Delaware Dam
E=Energy and Etiquette
F=Friday
G=Gown (wedding gown), grape pop
H=Hammocks and Holidays
I=Ice Skating and Isaly's
J=JACKS, Mother and Daughter, childhood games
K=Kindess, something we're taught
L=Love Story

Larceny and Old Lace

A while back hubby and I traveled to St. Louis to visit with our daughter and to see a play she was directing. This was the 2nd one she directed this year. Many of you will remember from your high school days a popular and very funny play, Arsenic and Old Lace, this is a newer version of that play and equally as funny called Larceny and Old Lace. Set and costuming is less elaborate then Arsenic version and therefore better suited to smaller schools and or smaller budgets.

We really enjoyed it as did the others in the audience. She's currently working with a cameo cast of 5 doing Shakespeare to close out the year. She loves doing this; but the hours she puts in are difficult. This is not her full time job, teaching 1st and 2nd grade in a difficult inner city school is. So, on top of teaching through the day, needing to grade papers and write lesson plans for 2 different grades, she drives 50 miles to get to this high school for more work. She's very very busy, and it makes me tired just thinking about all she does.

It was a good visit, we had fun, and are looking forward to our next venture with her there in St. Louis, though I don't know when that will be.

She loves it there in St. Louis, and everytime we travel there, we can see why; as we enjoy it
too.

each of the links will take you to a different post about St. Louis, enjoy along with us.

Rehab Center Picture Show

Hooked to the computer by way of USB port I'm loading pictures into a digital frame. Mentioned I scanned lots of old photo's the other day for my 90 year old Aunt who's at a rehab center in Urbana. Or maybe I mentioned it on my other blog? Anyway. The answer to how you make a Picture Show at a Rehab Center is to buy a digital picture frame. I added lots of pictures and still have room to add more. This particular frame holds 2,000 photo's. I'm no where near that. You can load the pictures into the frame without using a computer by hooking your camera directly to the frame with a USB cable, or by taking a memory card and sliding it into the frame. I elected to use my computer after scanning and editing the pictures that were on my computer.
You can select one of 3 speeds and I literally took a picture as it was getting ready to flip to another picture to show you. That's actually my Dad many years ago when he was delivery mail in Chillicothe, Ohio. My Aunt really enjoyed that picture. We plugged in and got it started for her, so hope it gives her some enjoyment and helps to keep old memories alive. You can see there's a mat within the frame so the picture area is smaller than the actual size of the frame.

Working on it!

"Working on it!" My favorite TV show is NCIS, so if you too watch that show; you'll be familiar with the quote. I finished my 2nd black Homespun scarf for The Bridge and started this 3rd one. I'm using 2 strands and larger knitting needles for this scarf. I'm also using up some stash with the various colors. The blue was donated to me by Rae when her mother passed, the purple was given to me as a gift when I helped someone with their family genealogy, the tan was donated to me by a previous co-worker when her sister past; and pinkish-rust was given to me from another previous co-worker....her daughter tried to crochet and hated it and so passed along the yarn. I crocheted a baby blanket for this co-worker so she figured I'd put it to good use. The black Homespun (all 4 skeins) was given to me by my Darling Daughter. So....lots of folks are involved in the making of this particular scarf.

Also shows you how people can pull together in small ways to get something accomplished that's far bigger then each of us individually. All may seem small at the time, but people truly are incredible. People do care about each other, and that seems to be a good thing to think about on this special Easter Sunday.

They all gave to me, and I'm able to give to others....giving is to me what this day is about.

Don't be Afraid of the Dark

Don't be afraid of the dark, we weren't when we participated in Earth Hour; but it appeared ALL of my neighbors were. How disappointing. Spot lights on when they let their dogs out, dogs don't need spot lights to see. In fact they probably see better without a bright light blaring at them. And who wants to be light up with a spot light during a private moment? Not me. Anyway, back to the point. Earth Hour came and went. I was sad to see lights on in almost every room of every house around us. Lights on in and out of the house, far too many lights on for people to be in everyroom really in need of the light. Here in lies the problem. People are wasteful. I know people weren't in everyroom, I know how few people live in some of these houses and I know how many lights I saw on.

It took some doing; but we were 100% off the grid. Seriously, we went room to room and unplugged everything we could find. Hubby checked the meter and it still showed we were pulling some juice. We retrace our steps room to room and found the clock on the microwave was still on. It's apparently wired separately, as is the censor for the garage door. We pulled the circuit breaker to get those off, rechecked the meter and bingo! We were now completely off the grid. We were pulling no juice. We remained outside enjoying our wine by our fire pit long past the mere 60 minutes of the "official Earth Hour". I doubt we made up for all those around us; but we gave it our best effort. It was a learning situation for us, who knew some of those censors stayed on when you clicked the lights off at night at the switch? We didn't. So it was a good exercise for us; caused us to be more aware. Much like when I ware a pedometer to see how many steps I walk, it causes you to be more aware.

I spent some time yesterday at Staples learning about special breakers that can sense when something isn't in use and shut off electric to it. I plan to check further into this and will keep you posted what I learn.

Why should we all practice some of the lessons from Earth Hour? The above Tree came to mind. The World is Beautiful, we must protect it. The pretty tree is one such example. I'll close here with my favorite poem of all time.

TREES

I think that I shall never see

A poem lovely as a tree.

A tree whose hungry mouth is pressed

Against the earth's sweet flowing breast;

A tree that looks at God all day,

And lifts her leafy arms to pray;

A tree that may in summer wear

A nest of robins in her hair;

Upon whose bosom snow has lain;

Who intimately lives with rain.

Poems are made by fools like me,

But only God can make a tree.

This poem was written by World War I Veteran Alfred Joyce Kilmer who died in France serving his country. He received a Purple Heart. Alfred was born in New Jersey and has a rest area there named for him; as well as schools, and a street or two. You may better know him as Joyce Kilmer; did you think Joyce was female? A common mistake.

So today I'm sharing with you my love of trees and nature through a favorite poem, and asking you to be gentle on this Earth. Take care of it.
REDUCE...REUSE...and RECYCLE

Important Family Time, Eating Dinner Together

Have continued cleaning up my desk area, trying to transfer files etc. from stacks of CD's and my older computer to this one. You know the constant effort to get organized. Making headway for sure; though a heavier than normal work scheduled has slowed things down again. errrrrrrr Work gets in the way, frustrating. lol Life hun?

Anyway in the process found these nice pictures of my new dining room when it was new. Guess I hadn't ever gotten around to editing and posting my pics before. I've never had a dining room set before and so was super thrilled when we selected this. Also, today's furniture is soooooooo big, it's not all that easy to find something that is physically the appropriate size as well as something that isn't over powering in it's height. With new houses being so modern and having large open spaces furniture design has followed suit. I like to actually sit in a chair with feet on the floor, not do an Edith Ann imitation. And our house is not big and open, it's what I call normal. Kitchen, Living Room, Dining Room, 3 bedrooms, and 1 bath.

Dark gold walls, wine in the style of an old still life is the border. I have nice hand painted dishes that have been in the family multiple generations that I can now have on display in the china cabinet. I do still want a picture or two on the walls, but haven't gotten that far. I don't know art, I know what I like when I see... and am remembering a dark picture of an elderly gentlemen sitting at a table in perhaps France or Italy sipping wine. The picture is one that makes you feel like you're in the vineyards. Anyone know what that picture is called? I'd love to have that.

I know in today's busy world it's not uncommon for families to eat on the run, to not sit down and eat together. That's too bad in my opinion. I think one of the most important times of any day is dinner time. It's a time without TV, a time without internet, a time without kids being plugged in or turned off. Or should be. A time for families to look at each other and actually converse. A time to ask about each other's day.