Saturday, May 30, 2009

New Jersey

I am excited to be going to New Jersey. It will be nice to escape the daily grind and grumpy people.
I am anxious to see Tim and Amy all in one place. This Stillwater church thing and the Princeton seminary thing is getting old for them, I'm sure. They will enjoy a couple of months of together time. Amy is anxious to do some classes at Tim's church and to be a preachers wife. I will enjoy watching that. Of course, the countryside is so beautiful there, that just relaxing and looking at the mountains will be good tonic. If this blog is quiet for awhile, you know I am relaxing and having a good time.
Of course, I will be feeling guilty because I am not in Ark with Tom and his broken neck. I realize I could be very little help, but still, I am used to being with my loved ones when they are not well. I know Marti and his caregiver Patty will take good care of him and I appreciate them. I will go see him when I get back and take pictures for him to see and have a little visit.
The hard part of being so far apart from everyone is eased a lot by the advent of cell phones and the internet. You can feel very connected with people even though there is vast distance. Still, being able to hug someone can't be replaced by the computer.
Summer is on the way. It will be hot soon and I will be cranky about that. Right now the weather is delightful.

Thursday, May 28, 2009

End of May

So May is about finished. Enjoyed the month a lot. Was blessed with visits from all three of the grandgirls. That is always a big day. Also, family time with seldom seen relatives, which is always a good time.
Business is booming, which is a very good thing...perhaps we can make up some lost ground from last fall and winter. The weather is nice and people are happy.
Next week we go to NJ for some Amy and Tim time. Anxious to meet the dogs and see the younguns and visit with Tims parish folks. I am taking one dress for churchey things, a couple pairs of pants and shirts and will give the washer a workout. Packing light so I can take Tim's stuff for his ladies to make their prayer blankets and I finally finished Amy's quilt so it will go with me. Believe me, flying is cheaper than UPS!!! The only bad part is we have to give Rachel back to NJ. Really enjoyed her visit and know that it may be the end of those long idealic summer visits since she graduates next May.
I hope June is as much fun as May.

Monday, May 25, 2009

Family

We had a good family day Saturday. We were at Mark and Crista's home and it is very unique and special. He designed and oversaw the work on it and it is a very interesting and beautiful house. It is always nice to see cousins, second cousins, once twice removed or whatever they are. Good to catch up and find out what they are all doing and about their families. Family stories and pictures. It is strange, when you don't see someone for many years, how easy it is to resume the relationship you used to have with them.
Harold learned all about teasing and tormenting his nieces and nephews from his Dad and Uncle Glen. The kids learned that Uncle Harry promised the grandkids a pony just as he promised me one when I was little. They were amazed that he pulled the same stuff on us as he did on them. Remembering when Scott was little and sang in the choir and Dad used to stay up late to hear the Christmas eve broadcast from Stillwater so he could hear his namesake, Scott Glen. Scott says he doesn't sing any more, but Harold's granddaughter does. Beautiful voice and wants to be an entertainer. She is in the Oklahoma production outside Tulsa for the summer season and is happy about that. She was in the Miss Okla pageant and won the talent contest. She is a pretty girl, Marks youngest, I think. Kathy's oldest, the one born with that horrible disease that made her skin blister when you touched her, is graduating and wants to play college basketball, but hopefully she won't. Kathy says she goes to the games with her needles and gauze ready to patch her up if they tear her skin. She is a pretty girl, as is her sister. Tony, Bud's son, was there with his wife and they are nice people. I didn't visit with them too much, but he is successful and a happy man. Pat Nimrod's family didn't come because they were meeting someplace west for their own reunion. Maybe next time, he said.
They asked about everyone in the family and we touched base with all the relation they know about that we don't know.
All I know is this, family is special. No matter how often you see them, you enjoy them and love them.
We missed all who weren't there and we did talk about you!!!!

Friday, May 22, 2009

MEMORIAL DAY

It is so far away from the Memorial Day of my youth, that I almost forgot about it. To begin with, Memorial Day is May 30 (or is it 31)not this silly last monday thing. We spent weeks before going to the cemetary to "clean up". That entailed cutting grass around the stones, making sure the roads were pasable, fixing anything that looked broken or out of place. We did about 10 plots, for family who lived away and friends. Dad built flower boxes and we went to the nursery and purchased geraniums, marigolds, sometimes petunias, and other hardy flowers. Then we would plant them in the boxes and put a bow on them and take them to the cemetary a few days before the day. Mother made certain that everyone in the extended family and friends had flowers on their lot. We visited cemetaries in the country where long gone family members were buried.
On Memorial day morning, we would go to the cemetary and out of town family would stop by and visit and then we would adjourn to our house for a picnic. Some brought food, others just an appetite. They knew there would be food for all and especially cake and home made ice cream.
Some of us would go to the 11am service of memory for the servicemen at the cemetary and I remember the haunting sound of taps being played.
As I grew older, Mother and Dad printed flags with the Presbyterian cross and members of the womens group would take them to the cemetary and spend a day putting the flags on the grave of every Presbyterian in the cemetary. Mother had maps made and kept them up all her life so no one was left out. It was (and still is) a beautiful sight to see all the American flags on the graves of veterans along with the Presbyterian flags.
I remember the year after Mother and Dad died, I was really upset as I went to the cemetary to do the first Memorial Day without them and I saw that there was no Presbyterian flag on their graves. Apparently, no one had updated the map and they were missed. But there has been a flag every year since then. I wonder when they will finally wear out and not be replaced. That tradition is at least 55 years old.
Mother finally gave in to artifical flowers a few years before her death, but Dad always made a box for Gran Mitchell.
I like family plots that have sidewalks around them and Dad and Uncle Harry always wanted a bench so they could sit and visit "after". Mother nixed both ideas, saying it was too much more work for the grounds keepers. She was right of course. But still, I would love to have a bench.
Today we seem to celebrate Memorial Day as a holiday..s long weekend away from work to go play and enjoy. I suppose there is nothing wrong with that, but I still love getting together with family and remembering the ones who are no longer with us and telling the youngsters stories of the past family. We don't do that often, but this year my cousin and his kids arranged a get together. We will go the the cemetary and then gather for a good old fashioned family day. I look forward to it. I will take pictures.

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

May

May is a month of graduations, family reunions, mosquitoes.
As mosquitoes are a nemesis in the female side of my family..I am always in dread of the aftermath of the great rains. They are big as dogs around here right now. When the dog goes into the backyard, we have to brush him off when he comes in because we found out that the pesky devils get a free ride in on his back. Rachel carries the scars for months and they set me on fire. Soon, they will abate and it will be better, but for right now, staying indoors and covered up is the only way to escape being bitten.
We have no graduations this year, but next year we will have two. Both on the east coast and with any luck at all within a 10 day span of each other so we can easily attend both. I will not miss Rachel's graduation from college and I absolutely will not miss Amy's graduation from Princeton. She called today and said she is officially a senior now and is glad not to be a middler anymore. She can see the end of one road and the beginning of the other. I am so excited for both of them. Amy will go on to finish her second masters degree in counseling, but she can do that by commuting to Rutgers. Hopefully, the job market will be better and there will be something Rachel will enjoy doing. If not, I guess grad school would be an option, but she is sort of tired of school.
I am looking forward to the Myers family reunion because they kindly included the Mitchell part of the family and we have not all been together since the last Aunt died and then some were missing. It will be nice to see the new generations that I don't know and really nice to see those who have grown old along with me.
May is a nice month. Really the only downer are the mosquitoes. So I will buy some more repellent and enjoy the month.

Monday, May 18, 2009

watch your bills

Today we received a bill from American Express and one from the phone company that both had weird charges on them. When I called about them, I was told they would cancel them and take it off the bill. But I still don't really know what they were for or how it got on my bill. I know we should always check our bills, but sometimes it gets by or we think someone else in the house bought something and don't ask. BUT ASK.....check your statements. Both places said I made agreements on the phone and I knew that was wrong, because I never agree to a charge by phone.

Saturday, May 16, 2009

Blessings Abound

I have been blessed over and over this month. Joey came to spend a week in Oklahoma so we had the great joy of having her with us. I always love spending time with her.
Then Rachel arrived and that was obviously great fun. We are having fun just hanging out at the shop and doing stuff. Becky came this morning for the weekend and it is always a pleasure to have her here to hug and be Becky. So tonight we will have lasagna for dinner, because that is Becky's favorite and I make some really good Stouffers lasagna. I love having her because her favorite meal is the easiest thing in the world.
Martha is coming in a week and we will all go to Edmond for a cousins reunion and Becky will drive down to spend the day there. Then we can go to the cemetary and put out flowers.
At the end of the month we will be traveling to NJ to see Amy and Tim and I really look forward to that. This time we will be able to meet Kizzy and Sig, the new (old) dogs they adopted. Looking forward to that. Maybe we will even be able to see Joeys new apt in NYC.
Doug is busy umpiring and doing census work and old Ghost is still hobbling around.
So we have had a good month and just feel that we are especially blessed because we have had the chance to see our girls.
Now I just need to be able to make plans to see Tom and I will be happy.

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

DAYDREAMS

Another study has found that daydreaming is good. It helps solve knotty problems in our lives. I don't know how scientists can look at our brain and watch it function, but apparently they can and do. A study showed that when people daydream, they don't necessarily get the work at hand done, but their brain is wandering and sorting out ideas to solve issues, like career changes and such things.
Maybe that is why youngsters daydream more than oldsters. Possibly that is the reason teens are given to hours of day dreaming.
So..not a bad thing, these daydreams. Just think of the thorny problems you may be able to solve.

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

RUNNING OUT OF ATTENtio....

Can you run out of attention? Interesting article in the NY Times May 5. It talks about being attentive and focused and how your brain cannot do more than one thing well at a time. It works on the theory that the brain's synchronizing mechanism is enhanced by practice and by things such as meditation. They say it is hard for the brain to ignore sounds, such as tv. They recommend using ear plugs when trying to focus in an area when there are many disractions, especially noise distractions. Apparently sight distractions are not as bad.
They think they have identified the fact that attention is a finite resource. So they ask the question, "Do you want to invest your cognitive cash on endless twittering or net surfing or tv watching"?
They say that your brain can process 173 billion bits of information over the course of a lifetime. Man, I hope I don't run out.

Monday, May 11, 2009

MOMS

I know it is no longer Mother's Day, but I need to say a word about Moms.
Mine was great. I always knew she loved me and took care of me and taught me my faith. She was a big part of my life and I didn't know how big a part she was until she was gone. She died in 1974 and that is a long time ago. But I think of her a lot and miss her guidance. Some would say she was bossy and intimidating. She was, but she had the role of making sure things got done and we got raised. That was her way of doing it and it was the way most Moms of that generation did it. As I get older and hopefully much wiser, I have come to realize that each generation had their own way of being Mom. My grandmother, who I adored, was widowed at a young age. She took care of family needs when the children were growing up and when she became a widow, her children stripped her of her home and belongings and took care of her. She had no decision making in that process. That was pretty much the way it was. She travelled to different kids homes, depending on the need for her help. Or sometimes, just because it was time to move on. My Mother didn't have much decision making either, but it had moved up a step and she helped provide the living. She had complete domain over the family, though..which Gran lacked.
I had lots of decision making within boundaries. Our generation took care of home and family, worked, did the civic stuff and church stuff and made many decisions. Just not things like money and job and stuff like that.
My children's generation did all of that, but had more responsibility with the total picture and Dads helped with the children quite a lot. There is more cross involvement in their lives. My daughter is a better Mom than I was because she is able to talk to her kids about stuff that I only hinted at but did not have real serious conversations about.
This present generation has turned it on its head. You can hardly tell a mom from a dad. That is not a bad thing. Probably brings more appreciation for each other and a better relationship with the kids. They can go to either parent for anything. Before, there was a clear cut division of responsibility. Maybe we are getting it right.
But....Moms are Moms and Dads are Dads. They each deserve their day. I would hate to think that it might evolve into Parents Day because there was no difference.
Anyway, long live Moms. Being a Mom is the greatest thing in the world and the good thing is this. Many women are Moms to people without being a biological mom. I think that is the real purpose of the day.

Friday, May 8, 2009

Trains

Joey goes back to NYC tomorrow and needed to get to DFW to catch her plane tomorrow. She has friends to stay with tonight and when her ride to Dallas fell through, we began to weigh our options. Since I don't feel competent to drive in heavy traffic now, I didn't need to take her. Doug was working today and tonight so he was out. We settled on my driving her to Ardmore to catch the Heartland Flyer to Ft Worth where her friend picked her up. Turned out to be a good thing. It only cost $20 and she said it was clean and very comfortable with reclining seats and footrests and it was not crowded. We worried as we were waiting on the train...kids kept appearing from around the corner and she said, "I hope all these kids aren't getting on the train" which evoked a response from a woman..."yes, they are. We are taking them to Gainesville". Wow... But when the train pulled in, about 100 kids got off wearing lime green shirts and they were from Lindsey and had taken a train ride to Ardmore and the school bus was there to pick them up. So I guess the 2nd graders from Ardmore were going to be ferried back by bus. Anyway, they had a car just for them, so Joey didn't see them again and she had a peaceful and pleasant trip. ]
I remember travelling by train with Gran. During the war we used to go to Ponca City by train and to McAlester by train to see family. She always made me dress up and I had to wear gloves and a hat and carry a purse. That is how ladies travel she would say. I am just glad I wasn't old enough to wear hose because she would have insisted on that and I hated wearing hose and still do to this day. (I never spell that right..I am talking about the hose things you wear on your legs...not what you water the yard with!)
I have always loved train travel. So sad we let it bet away from us.

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Fixed, not fixed

The Mercedes message light came on saying my headlamp was defective. I needed to travel to OKC and it was going to be rainy and dreary, so I took it to Oneals to have a new light installed. I picked it up and all was well. Next morning, in the pouring rain, gray sky and poor light, I started to OKC only to notice, to my dismay, that the message about the headlamp was once again staring me in the face. I got out and looked and sure enough...the right headlight was out. So I called them and said, "so what? did you take the right light out and put it in the left side?" I am not sure they thought it was funny, as they assured me they would never do that. So, I will take it in today and have it repaired.
It occurred to me that sometimes when we fix one fault that it often makes another fault come to the surface...maybe we need to be careful about fixing our faults. Well, maybe not...maybe we just need to be more aware of how easily our faults can surface. One right after the other, they seem to appear. But as long as we can take them in and get them fixed we will be ok.
I know, this is foolish rambliing, but that is what my mind is doing today.

Sunday, May 3, 2009

Gardens

I guess it is time to take down the poetry, though I quite enjoyed it. Tim said I missed his selection and it is called "MICROBES" and it goes like this: Adam hadam.
Ok, fine, Tim. Thanks, I can remember that.

I suppose it is time to plant gardens, but you won't find one here. We don't have enough sunshine where the dirt is. We manage some flowers, but if I needed to plant a victory garden, I would be in trouble.
I don't suppose many of you know what I mean by a Victory Garden. When I was a child during the 2nd world war, we all had victory gardens. Everyone turned their yards into gardens and we grew everything we could. We canned, made tomato ketsup, jellies and jams..though you had to figure out how to do it without sugar. We would save sugar coupons for our family on the farms so they could make preserves and share with us. Since we had a sizable yard, and there was also a community garden on the half block behind us, Dad grew tobacco and cured it in the garage and made his own cigarettes and pipe tobacco. We all would go to Mother and Dad Careys farm and pick the berries and the fruit trees. It is amazing how much you can do without sugar when it comes to making deserts and jellies. Mothers had to be quite careful with their ration coupons to be sure there was enough to eat. So growing the gardens made it that much better. At least you always had vegetables. We canned corn, beans, peas, beets and carrots. But let me tell you, the carrots we grew were awful. Our ground was not sandy enough to grow them so they did not fork and break off when you pulled them. Also, we dud not water too much. Mostly carried buckets of water to the garden and watered with a ladle. Yuk...the potato beetles were a mess and the kids had to go pick them off and whomp them with a brick. But you better know the difference between a lady bug and a potato beetle. Lady bugs are your friends. Onions and potatos went down in root cellars. Onions hung on the wall of the garage if there wasn't a root cellar. Potatos were packed in sand.

That was when Dad decided to beautify the yard and planted big canna beds. Cannas are big tall and big leafed plants that produce showy flowers. He always had a circular garden full of them.

My Gran cracked the whip on the garden, though. She was in charge of canning and she said what was planted and when it was picked. When she said to go pick beans, you had better get your bucket and go pick and they had better be the right size. She was a gentle soul, but she expected to tell you once and have you remember. But she always made it fun as she was patient enough to let me 'help' do things I was not big enough to do. I did not learn patience with kids from her. I was more like my Mother, she had little patience to teach you..but Gran would spend hours showing you how. Then you needed to remember it!

Well, if you plant a victory garden, don't forget to plant some marigolds at the end of the rows. It helps keep bugs away. That's what they told me anyway. I think it just made the work in the garden a little more pleasant to have a bit of color.