QUESTIONS

What is the proper thing to say to an 88 year old Mother that is beginning to forget some of the things that have been such a vital part of her very independant life. She still lives alone and cherishes her freedom and usefulness to the family.

Mother: "I've forgotten how to use my sewing machine". She was referring to filling the bobbin and threading the thread through the machine.
Me: "Well Mother you have to write everything down. That's what I have to do. " I said this in truth. The meds I'm on have really played havoc with my thought process. However, Mother doesn't really have a full picture of my condition and it's just as well. I wouldn't want her to worry.

What can I say that will give her some comfort. She is hurt by her loss of memory and ability.
I can't bear to see her hurt. WHAT CAN I SAY ? ? ? WHAT CAN I DO ?

DISAPPOINTMENT

When I saw this on tv, I was impressed. So I on my next trip to the grocery store, I bought one.

I chose the fragrance..Willow Blossom with the white textured shade.

The light flickers for 4 hours and turns itself off until you reset it. It was lovely. Instantly I thought I need more of these.

BUT...I discovered it smelled like insect repellant to me......So what did I do? Purchased a refill with the pretty shade called "Green tea citrus".

Lovely light...pretty display.....burns my eyes like INSECT REPELLANT.



I absolutely refuse to try the other fragrance. I've wasted enough money already. It's such a wonderful concept but I just can't stand the smell.

I guess my daughter in law will benefit from my curiosity once again. She seems to like the smell.


I want my home to smell inviting but I have to be able to stay here too.

Welcome to my closet

Because of the way my mind works now and a burning desire to become organized, I devised a way to see most of my clothes at one time. (Thank You Lord for a guest bedroom) It's remarkable how much frustration this has removed from my life. I have a wonderfully big closet but it doesn't work for me anymore.

sssshhhh

Please be quiet! Please don't let him know.

Taylor "loves" to play tricks on Grandpa. If it's not rubber bands in his hair or stickers on his back, it's something tied to his belt. He usually catches her but she keeps trying.

North Carolina

My personality has always been: Loyalty. School, town, state, country....I grab hold of it and will be loyal to my last breath.
Therefore I just love that Kroger has an entire section for North Carolina products. Mind you, all the products I have tried so far have been VERY good.
The Bone Sucking Sauce made in Raleigh, NC has been a long time favorite in our house. It has replaced my "homemade" bar-b-que sauce.
The Old Mule sauce is made in Columbus, NC and I have not used it yet.
The Yam Good Sauce is made in Turkey, NC and is also untried but I have taste tested both of the new sauces and predict that they will take their place along side of the Bone Sucking Sauce.
YES! NORTH CAROLINA IS QUITE A SAUCY GOOD STATE ! ! ! ! !

A favorite thing

I am especially fond of Mexican Heather. I really enjoy the dainty small violet flowers and the lacy foliage. In the past (at another house) I carried the shrubs through the winter by covering them with straw. Since this procedure is time and strength intensive, I won't be doing it this year. My (new this spring) Mexican Heather will weather the winter in a container on the back porch, pushed into a corner where it can benefit from the heat in the house.

After being instructed by their father, my grandchildren did a fantastic job of "weeding" Grandma's flower beds. HOWEVER.....this is the only wild violet that I have left. It popped up unexpectantly in my Mexican Heather. I'm guarding it very well and hope to coax it to spread and someday be transplanted back into my flower bed.

My new favorite kitchen gadget

The quickest and easiest way to "boil" an egg is to microwave it. If you don't mind dry eggs, that is. If I skip the grease on the eggs, then maybe my country sausage can be excused.

This little gadget makes preparing eggs for salads very easy.

You know you are a Contractor's wife when:

One Saturday we drove 30 miles to a jobsite to pick up the truck, trailer and a large piece of equipment. As usual I questioned whether CY had the keys to the truck BEFORE we left home. He verified that he did so we were on our way.
Once on site, he discovered he did not have the rather odd looking key required to start the loader. Long story-short....I scrambled in my purse and wa-la.....the key! What can I say, I'm a died in the wool contractor's wife.
By the way....I don't know how the underlining got on the first part of this post and I don't know how to get it off.

PEST

Each year we are presented a good helping of this mess. The light brown "stuff" is moist sawdust. The small black spots are ants. The whole mess is an announcement that the Carpenter Bees are back to destroy our porch structure as they build their new homes......






This is a "new home". A hole in the top board of the porch. It is quite large (about the size of a nickle) for an insect and quite unwelcome.
All of this will be avoided once we actually do get the porch screened.

MY MOUNTAIN OF DIRT

From the beginning, CY has wanted a pond behind our house. He has worked on building it for four years (off and on). This is as far as it has come.

The neighbors complain about the mountain of dirt.
The grandchildren love our mountain of dirt.
CY wants to haul away our mountain of dirt.

The birds and I ENJOY my mountain of dirt.
I really like this reflection in the late afternoons.

NECESSITY-MOTHER OF INVENTION

THE PARTS:

1. Birdbath: no longer used by birds.

They now use the pond.

2. Glue:

3. Shells:

4. Glass circle

THE OBJECTIVE:

I need a side table for my glider on the porch. There is no money in the budget for it. There is not one around the house that I can spare.

CY said glue the top to the base for stability, but which one should I use? ? ?

I used the Titebond because I couldn't figure out how to operate the Power Grab.

ALL GLUED AND STURDY !

I'm almost finished. Now I will put clear silicone (when I get some) around the glass to seal it and keep little fingers from running off with my shells.

A big "THANK YOU" to Wayne and Linda Arrington for the wonderful shells.

A QUIET PLACE

Because of the health and financial issues in our household, finding peacefulness is an uphill battle. Since I am the only warrier, I have to work doubletime.
Occasionally, I get to sit here on our porch, read my Bible Study, drink my artificially sweetened coffee and contemplate THE MEANING OF LIFE.

NEW RING

After dating for 4 years my 24 year old grandson finally "popped the question". Crystal says she was very surprised. She has 2 more years of college before she can become the middle school English teacher that she wants to be. When I asked how she made her decision about the age group of children to teach she said, " Elementary grades are all over the place and run around a lot, highschool students are "mean" and I don't want to have to wear a bullit proof vest, so middle school seems just right. CY says he's about ready for more great grandchildren anyway. No pressure there.. Bryan and Crystal....no not much!

TURNIPS

We had hoped for a large garden this year. CY put a lot of new dirt on the area that had been taken from the pond. BIG MISTAKE The dirt was sandy and dried out as hard as a rock....We had a fair amount of turnip greens but then the bugs, weather and soil condition did them in. Next came the decision to mow the greens down, fertilize, poision for worms and allow to regrow. As we mowed, we noticed that the turnips were being pulled from the ground so we harvested all that we could and had a delicious few meals from the results. This fall MAJOR conditioning of the soil will be done.

FRIDAY: Part 3..Stocking up

Time to replenish the fridge and freezer with good old country sausage. The ham bones were two for the price of one and will come in handy for all the greens I'm planning to cook.

FRIDAY: Part 2..Celebration

I finally got the results of my last lab work. My sed rate (amt. of inflamation in my body) had dropped from 36 to 28 in 30 days. Yea! When I reach the rate of 15 which is normal I will be doing the "happy dance"
Because of the drop, my doctor decreased the predinisone to 9 per day and we celebrated with whole baby flounder, baked potato, slaw and iced tea.

FRIDAY: Part 1..Yearly visit

Bruce (CY's X-brother-in-law) came to North Carolina early this year to attend his granddaughter's (Alicia) graduation from high school.

He was more interested in asking questions about different family members than he had been in years past. So I pulled up pictures of 2008's family reunion and CY attempted to identify for him children he had never seen and adults he remembers as children.

THURSDAY: Back in the saddle again

THE OLD WAY: In the past when we wanted to bid on a job, I would contact the GC and request plans. Most times a set of plans would be fedx'ed to us. This was time consuming and with only 5 to 6 days lead time we were always pushed for time in gathering the figures for our quote.

A NEWER WAY: Then came the day of the computer and e-mail. I receive a full set of plans as an attachment to an e-mail. At this point, I forward the plans to Staples to have them printed at $3.00 per page. Ouch! That is expensive and there is still a wait time and plans have to be picked up.

THE BEST WAY: Then we discovered this big jewel of a machine. Thanks to Duncan-Parnell, we now have a "plotter" or as I call it a printer that prints plans and it can do it right off of my computer. However, I've had to call the repair/service man out twice in as many months. Power failure has been the culprit. I'll just have to breakdown and get another battery backup. Mine died six months ago. It's so rewarding to see the blueprints rolling off this machine. I can print the pages we need (I don't deal with the architectual pages) and leave the rest.
The only draw back is that it came with it's own little cp, moniter and keyboard which I had to make room for in the corner. This is the controler and my cp has to talk to the printer's cp.
I don't deal with all that cp stuff either.. I'm just too old to learn all those new tricks.

WEDNESDAY: Fragrance for the House

I am particularly fond of the dwarf gardenia bushes that I have planted in front of my house. I had trailing gardenia at the last house but when they weren't available for this one I "settled" for dwarf. I am liking the dwarf even better than the trailing.

The fragrance is amazing. It also reminds me of bible school when I was around 10 or 11. The church which I visited because our church had the bible school at night, had gardenia bushes planted around it.

My one dislike is that the blooms are so short lived and turn brown. I am just not up to much dead-heading these days so my bushes are not as pretty as they could be.

TUESDAY

What better way to watch
tv at Grandma's house?

MONDAY

The pond isn't completed, the boat has no title but there is a lot of potential here.

SUNDAY

We inherited this clock from Wendy's cleanup. It came with 2 bent hands and was very much off time. With a few minutes of "TLC" CY had it keeping time like a champ.

PANIC - POST

I couldn't find my old blog so I panicked and started this new one. My daughter, as usual was the inspiration for this. Along with a blogger that used the phrase "thinking in bullets". I can do that. I even talk in bullets, thanks to a medication that has me talking a lot and talking in half sentences.

My health has improved to the point that I am taking pictures again. I hope to take a picture each day of my very mundane life and share it with the world.

Here's blessing this blog and my ability to carry this through.