Mixed Blessings

My last chick has left the nest and bought a house of her own. I'm very proud of her, but I told her older sister I felt a little sad to see her go. She cheered me up by reminding me, "You must have done SOMEthing right; she's leaving!"

I realized this morning that last night I had just spent the first night in my life in a house where no one else lives. Not my first night to be alone, but the first time ever to be in my own home with no one else in residence. No parent, no roommate, no spouse, no child, no pet. Just me.

Yep, just me, with a bathroom of my own. A washer and dryer of my own. A thermostat of my own.

Maybe I should call in the house keys from my grown-up kids so I can run around the house naked if I want to.

Happy Mothers Day!

Yesterday, nobody had a plan for What To Do About Mothers Day.

From elder daughter: "Is anybody planning to do anything for all of us mothers in our family?" Me: "Have you talked to your siblings lately?" She: "Well, no . . ."

From middle-child: "Mothers Day is TOMORROW?!! Nobody's gonna get ANYthing!" (It's the week between paydays for him.) "What do you want?" Me: "A geranium?"

From younger daughter: "What do you want for Mothers Day?" Me: "Quality time?"

I went to the grocery store to pick up - I promise! - only two things, then decided I should make a backup plan in case the kids, with their dizzyingly busy lives, didn't talk to each other. Can't have anyone going off on a guilt trip, or me having a pity party. So I bought the makings for tacos and a fruit salad. Tried to call the younger daughter (she's the one who makes things happen) but only got her voice mail. Called the son and told him what I had done; he said he would call his sisters.

Younger daughter called me later, invited me to go to church with her this morning.
I resisted - "I can't wake up that early. I don't have anything to wear. I need to cook the tacos."
She insisted - "We'll go to the late service. I'll pick out your clothes. I'll help you cook when we get home."

She picked me up, made me pick out my own clothes. We heard a nice sermon about family relationships that brought tears to my eyes. Why did he only talk about husbands and wives when so many of us are alone? I wanted to leave but I toughed it out. Didn't want to embarrass this wonderful girl.

On the way back to my house, we picked up elder daughter, granddaughter, and the queso sauce and brownies they had made (Who knew?); stopped and picked up tortilla chips and Dr Peppers. We got to the house to find there was even MORE to the plotting behind my back; daughter-in-law was cooking and slicing and chopping and mixing while son added leaves to the table, set out the plates, and kept an eye on the grandson. Son-in-law came and joined us after he got off work, completing the crew.

We had a yummy meal and a lot of laughs. After we finished eating, the little one insisted we go out and "wing" - he really likes his Grammi's new porch swing. My granddaughter, age 15, actually let me show her my 1964 high school yearbook with the girls in bouffant hairdos and skirt and sweater sets and the boys with short haircuts and button-up shirts with the tails tucked into belted pants. She thought my cat's-eye glasses were weird.

After they went home, I sat in my porch swing and finished the heel on the sock I am knitting.

Thanks, kids! It was a great day. Happy Mothers Day, everyone!

How many Colorsburgs are there?

I just had this off-the-wall thought about the coincidence of recent tragedies in towns whose names begin with a color and end with "-sburg". So, naturally, I googled "blacksburg knitting" and "greensburg ks knitting" and found that each city has a group accepting knitted squares with which to make afghans.Just in case you wanted to know, or have a yen to knit or crochet squares...

The Greensburg project has no color preference, but my brain says green for Greensburg:

http://specialstuff.typepad.com/sugar_bunny_boulevard/2007/05/rebuilding_gree.html

The Blacksburg project prefers Hokie school colors of maroon, burnt orange, black, and white:

http://mosaicyarnshop.blogspot.com/2007/04/mosaic-yarn-shop-is-asking-that-all.html

Don't pay the ransom, I escaped!

I know, it's been a long time. It's my procrastination kicking in again. I think I should post something here, then I think I need to include a picture, but I don't have my camera handy, and my cellphone cam pix are just not really very good.

So, what have I accomplished since you last heard from me? Well, I haven't gone out and bought the materials I need for my door frames and baseboards, but I have made the measurements.

I filed my taxes. This is the first year since 1975 that life has been uncomplicated enough for me to do this without an accountant.

I put together the porch swing the kids got me for Christmas. I know, it's been a long time since Christmas, but the weather hasn't been nice enough to use a porch swing until recently. I picked a beautiful day in April

and got all the stuff out of the box

and put it all together.

Then I had to make sure it worked okay. Alice came over and we sat and swang and looked at the neighborhood. Even talked to some other neighbors who were outdoors. It was really nice; everyone should have one of these things!

It was really easy to do, especially compared to laying a floor. I didn't have to cut a single thing to make it fit together.

A much less pleasant task

was unstopping the tub drain, but I still got that heady feeling of wow-I-CAN-do-this-myself! Made me feel really good when one of the good ol' boys told me about paying eighty dollars to have someone else do it for him.

On a more fragrant note, I finally started a sock! I signed up for Susan's Horcrux Knitalong almost a month ago, and I have finally made some progress.

Just for the record, the yarn is J-Knits's hand-dyed Superwash Me - Light Sock merino wool, color "Massachusetts." The needles are KnitPicks double-points, US size 2.

I made a pair of these back in February, using Susan's Horcrux pattern for worsted-weight yarn. Those worked up more quickly - fatter yarn, fewer stitches.

That's probably not all my news, but I think I'll go enjoy my knitting for a while before I can keep my eyes open no longer. G'night!

A full week of birthday celebration!

In the troublemakers' corner at the family-owned restaurant we like to call the South Bethany Country Club, there is a multi-generational assortment of characters that rotates through there most Saturday mornings for a meal or just coffee and always to touch base with each other. This has been going on for 30 some-odd years or so. We've been through a lot together.

Several of these individuals - we're not cohesive enough to be called a group - like to remember and recognize each others' birthdays. And because my kids and I couldn't manage to get together on the actual day, we agreed on 10:00 AM on Saturday. That worked out well, since it put my family group and my friends in the same place at the same time, and for some, for the same purpose.

My dear friends put a lot of thought into the gifts they brought me. Not expensive gifts, not the generic oh-this-will-work-for-anyone gifts. They know me, they know what I like, they know what I need. I love them all.

I feel a little sad for people who think they are too grown-up to celebrate their birthdays.

M-T-W-Th-F

There's always so much to do after a vacation. So, it was just work work work as usual. Except for Wednesday, which was my birthday. My very excellent boss brought doughnuts and everyone had signed one of those tastelessly hilarious cards for me. I love it.
This is not just any birthday, this one is one of those very round numbers. The first digit has a very round aspect, and the last digit is absolutely round. The best part of that is that now I qualify for a Senior Discount at almost every place in town - except those hardnoses that insist you must be 62 or even 65. Can you believe some even ask for ID - as if we Baby Boomers would lie!

My friend Alice and I have been treating each other to birthday dinners for several years now, and we always try to choose a place where we'll both enjoy the meal. This time we decided to go to Golden Corral, where one can be totally satisfied on a wide variety of excellent food. The only downside, if it is one, is that there are so many foods that look so good. If I took only a tablespoonful of each item that appealed to me, I would have had three heaping platesful. They should furnish wheelbarrows to roll people out to their cars. Thanks, Alice!

Ketchup

I know, it's been over a week since my last post. I didn't really think this blog was going to write itself, but I thought I could keep up better than this.

I'll try here to bring things up to date. That fifth day of vacation (Friday) I didn't get much done on the house. Thursday night I had picked up the Blue and Gold fundraiser stuff and hauled it home and crammed it in the second fridge, so Friday morning I got it all repackaged with names written on plastic grocery bags, loaded it into the car, and headed out to make deliveries.

Then my cellphone rang.

I got everything delivered, but then I went to pick up my son [this IS a blog, do I have to call him DS?] to take him to the doctor. He had started the day with a vision problem, which evolved into a severe headache with vomiting. Scared me--I've seen all those TV shows about brain tumors and strokes and macular degeneration, but I'm trying to be calm and cool and work on my knitting while I'm trying to hear through the door what the doctor is saying to him.
DDIL is being so cool - she went on to work like nothing abnormal was happening.
Apparently it was "just" a migraine headache. He's never had one before. Why now? He got his prescriptions filled and started feeling better, so we got to enjoy a lunch together at three in the afternoon.

I had to frog everything I had knit and reknit it later. I had so many mistakes.

I can't remember now what I did Saturday. I know I got some of the hall floor laid, because Sunday morning, while the rest of the world is in church, I got the hardest part of the whole thing finished. There is a reason they tell you to do the longest wall first. That goes triple when that longest wall has multiple doors and things in the way to keep you from having any leeway in lateral positioning while you've got the whole length pulled up at an angle to snap the new pieces in. It worked, though, so I'm pretty sure God still loves me. My whole family got to have Easter dinner at my "new" table in my "new" living room with the NEW floor.

The kids brought lasagna and salad and garlic bread and made my favorite cake in honor of my birthday (on Wednesday). Good thing there were no candles - I had no strength left after the floor episode.

How do you spell adorable grandson in blogese--DGS? He arrived in a cranky mood. Didn't want to sit in his highchair, didn't want to eat the bread his mom gave him (which is such a favorite with him she usually keeps it for last), just wanted to cry and say No No No. Then he took my fork and started eating lasagna out of my plate. We had so much fun with that, he forgot all about being a grouch.