Mother's Day and Weekend Fun

Good morning.  It's another wet morning here but should clear a bit later.  It had better because I have errands to run.  The photo is the dam at our cabin area.  Last weeks storms and monumental rains have the creek way up, up enough to let an air boat up the creek making a lot of noise.  We headed there Thursday and had a most wonderful time sitting on the newly screened porch and the new shades.  It was even cool enough in the mornings for a fire on the porch.  

Saturday night we hosted a fajita bar.  The weather could not have been more perfect.  Yesterday was of course Mother's Day and I kind of glossed over it.  It's hard to celebrate a day when you don't have a mother to call.  Oh yes, I should CELEBRATE her, and I do in my mind, it's just that I miss her sometimes too much on that day.  I do acknowledge the other mothers in my life, my daughters, who are fantastic mommas.  My darling mother-in-law, whom I miss dearly.  My friends, who are mommas.  My dear friend, Beverly, who lost her 94 year old mother just last week.  Mother's everywhere.  

Okay, now I am going to ask a question.  I have posted here on my blog for nearly 18 years and the reader traffic has been mostly non-existent BUT lately, I've noticed that I'm getting a lot of traffic.  My posts are getting like 45-85 reads lately.  What is up with that and who are they and WHY DOESN'T anyone at least comment.  Is it bots, AI, WHAT!  Just curious what is going on.  If you're out there, maybe say something please.  I don't think I'm THAT interesting, am I.  

Mother's Day

Wow, April is gone and May is upon us.  Spring seems to be slowly going by with winter finally giving up the ghost.  This next weekend, according to my calendar, is Mother's Day.  So many mothers to honor and so many mother's to miss for many.

Yesterday we had lunch/dinner or linner-lunner with my siblings and their spouses.  Sitting across the table from my sister I was struck by how much she looks like Momma.

Especially her laugh, not her disposition.  My sister is a one of a kind and she was hot yesterday with all kinds of snarky comebacks.  Made me kind of shut down and not respond to her particular kind of vile.  She is my sister and I've always said, "to know D is to love D," but sometimes not.  LOL!  

I so miss my momma.  I think of her often these past 16 years and how much she would have loved, LOVED the great-grandgirls and would have been so very proud of all her grandchildren.  She was an amazing grandmother, as a mother she was pretty awesome too but we all know that we ALL, ALL have our faults.  No one is perfect, even though you want them to be.  But I loved my Momma with all my heart and she was my best friend.  I miss being able to call her and just talk like my girls do to me.  I know sometimes she would roll her eyes over the phone but she listened to me without complaint.  She was always there for me.  I try to be for my girls.  

My girls, oh my girls.  They are the best mothers and I am so very proud of them in how they are raising their children.  They are doing an absolutely amazing job.

I think my mother and my mother-in-law, another wonderful mother, have been great inspiration for them to raise their babies.  Lots and lots of love and understanding and guidance to raise the future generation.  

So Happy Mother's Day to my Momma and mother-in-law in heaven and to my wonderful girls.  They give inspiration to me to be the best for them. 

 

Saturday and Sunshine

It is 9:32 am Saturday morning and I am sitting in my favorite chair in town. We didn't go to the lake/cabin as B had a girls weekend at our place. The sunshine is just streaming through the dirty windows of my room but will I clean them, I don't think so. It is quiet except for my fingers tapping away here on the keyboard. I've got my I-Tunes up listening to some relaxing spa music but I can also hear the washer chug-chugging along with my clothes and Neo the canary is trying to outdo the sounds of a household. The Hubby had to take a drive to the cabin as there is a board meeting up there this morning but he will be back for the birthday for our great-niece this afternoon.

This has been a fairly easy week with not much happening. The MIL finally is settling down in her new digs and unpacking boxes. The service that is running her estate sale at the house has been hard at it with today the last day of the sale. The Hubby said that it has been going well and thinks nearly all of the leftover stuff will be gone. The realtor called The Hubby yesterday and said there was a really, really good nibble on the house and so he's milking it and hopefully there will be a contract in a few days. It is about time. The house has sat on the market since October 2007. It really is a great house but she put it on the market at the wrong time and then the ice storm, then the rains, then the economy. It was really just bad timing but it will sell, eventually. The Hubby has been over there many, many nights and days trying to fix different things and he is just exhausted. The middle bro has been there too helping her with the move, he's a designer, that was his expertise. I helped with the packing and the move. The oldest bro and his wife have not even peeked their little eyelids into the whole operation. Oh I will not start there.

Tomorrow will be my little girls birthday. Twenty-three years ago I was approaching the birth of a most beautiful girl, A. I am very proud of her and miss her terribly as she lives in California. She is making her way in life and that is what you raise them to do. When I had my children I just knew from the start that I was raising them to leave home. I had to make sure to teach them about life and ALL the little things in it, but that is a lot of stuff and a lot can be missed. I knew that I/we needed to teach them to be self-sufficient and pioneers in their own lives. Both of my girls can manage quite will on their own. A struggles a little more than B but there is 6 years difference between them. The thing I really missed out with is a little more about managing money and what all of it entails. I realized yesterday that A is getting paid like contract labor and warned her that she needed to put money back to pay her income taxes. That is just one of those gliches you find out about and don't really think about. I'm just glad I'm here for consulting for my girls. That is what my parents and grandparents were there for and it was wonderful.

Gosh I miss my Mommma. When my girls were little I would pack them up in the car early in the morning on Saturdays and we would spend the entire day at Momma and Daddy's. We would sometimes spend the day in their wonderful back yard where Daddy had set up a swing set or play in the kiddie pool or hose. We would garden in their large garden where my kids got to learn why a snapdragon was called a snapdragon or pull carrots, dig potatoes, or pick red ripe tomatoes. Sometimes we would make a trip to the greenhouse to find the new plant for the season to or go to the gardens for fresh produce. We would get bushels of green beans or corn and go back to the house to process all of it. I learned to can green beans (wouldn't do it by myself today) or blanch corn and cut it off the ear in anticipation of the coming Thanksgiving and fresh creamed corn. We cooked, napped, laughed, and my girls got to know the absolute joy of their grandparents. My grandmother was still alive too and the girls would take turns staying the night with her, mostly B as she was older. Grandparents are awesome. I miss those days. It was a rich upbringing for my girls and for me.

I had that kind of experience when I was little going to my Greatgranny's. There are pictures on the side of my blog of the house and outhouse. They did not have a working bathroom till I was a senior in high school. In the summers the bath was taken at the creek in ice cold water. Food was an interesting array of garden fresh vegetables and a variety of meats that consisted of squirrel, venison, rabbit or fish. Sometime I will write more of those experiences here as I could make this entry go on forever. Keep reading

Busy Monday

It is a busy Monday for me. Of course there was the usual Jazzercise, then home for a quick breakfast then on to the personal trainer, Wade. Home again I showered then rushed out of the house to the office. The Hubby told me that Saturday there were several large checks in the mail so I knew I needed to make a deposit and then slog through the mounds of bills I didn't get around to paying on Friday. On top of the stack of mail and bills were invoices that The Hubby finally finished so I could type. So I've been very, very busy this morning. I actually entered, printed and signed 38 checks, stuffed the envelopes and then ran them through the postage meter. I had forgotten that the postage went up to $.42 so I spent $15.96 mailing the bills and another $3.36 on the invoicing. Wow. That is done and I have writers cramp in my hand from signing all the checks. I also managed to order a new desk computer because this one is absolutely possessed. Sometimes it will take me 2 hours to open up my QuickbooksPro accounting program, and that can be very scary if you have forgotten to back it up. Now it is 3pm and I can finally add an entry onto the blog.

Yesterday I had one of the brother-in-laws and the mother-in-law over for dinner. They didn't come till after 5 so it was a lazy day most of it. I spent the time in my new hammock and even fell asleep, sunburning the inside of my thighs. I also took a little spill onto a cobblestone patio when I shifted. The Hubby was sitting in a chair watching and the next thing I knew I was looking at rock and wondering what had happened. I scraped my pinkie knuckle pretty good but didn't even notice for 15 minutes when it started stinging and I felt blood trickle. OUCH! The dinner went nicely and I was very laid back in the food area. The Hubby smoked ribs all day and boy were they tender and tasty. I oven roasted on one cookie sheet: asparagus, red onion, yellow squash and red pepper with a little olive oil and jalapeno salt. The other cookie sheet had cubed sweet potatoes tossed in olive oil, Splenda (not much) and more jalapeno salt. Those were so very yummy, caramelized a little and with a little heat. We also had a huge tossed salad and for dessert there was a berry mixture of strawberries, raspberries and blueberries on top of store bought angel food cake and a dollop of Cool Whip. ...excuse me while I clean up the drool, I'm hungry right now. I even heard from my girls, A from California and B from Budapest. They sound good. I decided yesterday not to be sad about not having my Momma or my girls around me for Mother's Day but instead rejoiced that Gloria was there to celebrate and I emailed my girls and told them that I was glad they were not there as they were where they should be, living their dreams. That they need not be sad but enjoy life, their lives. It think it helped me and them to get through the day.

Oh my goodness the traffic outside of the office is driving me crazy. We are one block off of Utica and the railroad tracks that run across it are being redone so they are re-routing the traffic right in front of our offices. The grinding gears of semi's and boom boxes blaring and rattling the walls is horrible. Apparantly they are actually messing with the railroad tracks but the road around it because at lunch I heard the train horn and was concerned there was going to be a derailment but alas it was fine but the backup in front of the office was awful. I'm glad I didn't have to leave during all of that but tonight might me another story just trying to get home.