Ending the year on a positive note

Some of my family and friends are having a carpy end to 2010. I feel for them because I have had whole years like that. I'm feeling very positive about the coming year. Britten has found her soul mate and will be marrying Brandon. The magnet will have to be approved by the Bride - to - be, but this is my mock up.

My grandsons are too cute for words. I am extremely proud of my son and his wife for their amazing accomplishments this past year. Peter has a clean bill of health. Life is GOOD!

Passing it forward

It's easy to take credit when your children turn into great adults, but really, you just gave them the tools...They take the initiative and make their lives work.

I am so proud of my children. And that is all I have to say about that...

Change

Don't get too attached  to the moment...It will change in the blink of an eye

Paige's arrival

Dottie and her grandaughter

Hunter in hot water

Matt White - Love

My little nintendo guys...

Breakfast at Denny's with the kids. on Twitpic

Breakfast at Denny's with the kids. on Twitpic

Life is weird

no doubt about it

Passing

People from my past are dropping like flies...unfortunately they are the ones who will be missed///

Life unexpected

Peter's ex is in the hospital after suffering what appears to be a stroke. Healing thoughts...

Carpe Diem

"Seize the day, trusting as little as possible in the future", and the ode says that the future is unknowable, and that instead one should scale back one's hopes to a brief future, and drink one's wine.

2 out of 3  residents in this household are going to enjoy this beautiful day...

Good bye to some more loved ones

Sometimes a relative or acquaintance passes out of this life and you don't even know about it. It doesn't make them less important if you don't attend the service...once they entered your life or you theirs, they have affected your existence forever ...Bye Aunt Skip...I will always remember you as you were when I was part of your life...
Animals are different. They are our silent partners . when they leave, they leave an emptiness that needs to be filled by something else warm and fuzzy...You'll know when...
Bye Winnie.

Just some random thoughts

Parenting may be work, but it shouldn't be treated as a job...Children need love as well as discipline.

Politics and public office...

The media has stepped out of bounds...Reporters should leave bias to the public and report facts...guilt should be proven, not innocence 

If you don't believe things can change at a moments notice, check out the weather

Love is a wave

Beautiful day

It's a beautiful morning...great day for my barn sale

I need to grow up and smell the roses

There are some things in life that don't disappear with age. Strained relationships are easier to deal with when you are younger and busier. I'm finding I have less tolerance now, knowing that there is more time behind me than there is before me.  Sticks and stones sting more, hurt more, and nick away at joyful moments. I can not expect to change ignorance and paranoia...yet somehow I always do expect to...

Tomorrow is another day

rearranging the barn...and life

We have this beautiful old barn. It's bigger than most houses and it is full of stuff! Peter and I have been cleaning rearranging and shoveling C*ap all week and it's finally beginning to show promise...all the stuff is going to be beautified (well cleaned ) and parted with. I will have my summer studio and Peter will have a proper workshop where he can manuever things longer than 4'...AT LEAST THAT'S THE PLAN

For every high there is a low

Complete melt down tonight...I'm sure the heat wave is the cause...tomorrow I should be able to breathe again

Take it off...

I have stripped to 3 pieces of clothing. I washed my hair this morning and it still hasn't dried...If the heat melted body fat, I would vote for a 30 day heat wave...That said, I am so lucky to have a deep well, an air conditioner in the 2 most important rooms of the house and a box of wine in the fridge...life is good

Mute

My wireless keyboard died yesterday...Okay, I may have helped it along a little bit by spilling iced tea on it :-o...
anyway, It was like being mute at a big party. You can see everything going on but can't respond ....needless to say, I went out and got a new keyboard today...not a wireless but usb is good enough

Goodbye Uncle Charlie

I'll miss knowing you were just up the road...

Cumberland Pass

What a difference a week makes

Immortality

Being a mother by birth or right insures my  life will have meaning long after I am gone...In a sense it is a form of immortality. Therefore I am a goddess.

Jury duty...almost

I was called for Jury Duty

I spent 3 days in a selection process starting with 175 people. For what ever reasons, by 4:00 this afternoon, 150 of us were eliminated as jurists and not one person was chosen.
 I know that I put my life on hold and was willing to do my civic duty. Now I don't have to...for another 6 years...
I'm looking forward news from the trial...if they ever can agree on a jury

Sometimes we need to be reminded

ALL I REALLY NEED TO KNOW I LEARNED IN KINDERGARTEN
(a guide for Global Leadership)
All I really need to know about how to live and what to do and how to be I learned in kindergarten. Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate school mountain, but there in the sand pile at school.
These are the things I learned:

• Share everything.
• Play fair.
• Don't hit people.
• Put things back where you found them.
• Clean up your own mess.
• Don't take things that aren't yours.
• Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody.
• Wash your hands before you eat.
• Flush.
• Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.
• Live a balanced life - learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.
• Take a nap every afternoon.
• When you go out in the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands and stick together.
• Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the Styrofoam cup: the roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that.
• Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup - they all die. So do                                        we.
• And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first word you learned - the biggest word of all - LOOK.

Everything you need to know is in there somewhere. The Golden Rule and love and basic sanitation. Ecology and politics and equality and sane living.
Take any one of those items and extrapolate it into sophisticated adult terms and apply it to your family life or your work or government or your world and it holds true and clear and firm. Think what a better world it would be if we all - the whole world - had cookies and milk at about 3 o'clock in the afternoon and then lay down with our blankies for a nap. Or if all governments had as a basic policy to always put things back where they found them and to clean up their own mess.
And it is still true, no matter how old you are, when you go out in the world, it is best to hold hands and stick together.
[Source: "ALL I REALLY NEED TO KNOW I LEARNED IN KINDERGARTEN" by Robert Fulghum.  See his web site at http://www.robertfulghum.com/  ]

the chair

Grandma to a super hero

Yep! That's snow

April snow showers bring May flowers?

Sparkling Clean Glassware

Anyone who knows me, knows when I go to Florida for the winter, my most missed appliance is my dishwasher. Unfortunately, we have well water which is very hard and for years I suffered with cloudy glasses and flatware...Here is the cure!!!
At the beginning of the cycle, add a package of crystal light or cheap alternative. I use lemonade because it doesn't stain the dishwasher, but any flavor works.
Your glassware will sparkle like new.

the above method works for me...try at your own risk

Mari

Margot Potter The Impatient Crafter™: RIP Civility and Saturday TastyLinks!

Margot Potter The Impatient Crafter™: RIP Civility and Saturday TastyLinks!

Margo always knows...click the link and read her blog. She manages to write her honest thoughts without being preachy...This hits really close to home for me this week.

Health care for all is NO JOKE

For years, it has been a standing joke that I married my husband for his health care benefits...as a waitress, I had none and disaster struck twice in 3 years and as a result, instead of continuing my education as planned, I ended up paying hospital bills for the next ten years. It's easy for people to criticize when they've never faced the choice of going to a doctor or paying the rent YET...

Peter has a run in with a gator

Blue sky and oranges

Who could ask for anything more...

My cure for obesity

Restaurants should charge by the calorie with a premium for fat and sodium...ie: carrot = 25 cents
big Mac =  $5.63
Denny's All American Slam =  $9.90
16 oz sirloin =  $12.00
Banana Split = 10.89

How cold was it?

Peter's been wearing socks all winter...

success (of a sort)

My latest...acrylic on canson acrylic paper...I like this paper very much for printing and painting

Miami has lost it's allure

This will be our last winter in Miami. We have decided to cut our mileage by 500 miles next year and stay near Titusville...The area has more to offer and is less expensive in the long run...On the downside, the weather is cooler but is balmy compared to upstate NY. New adventures await...

Maybe it's the rain...

I am so disappointed that we have free minutes on the cell on weekends and no one ever calls then...
25% of our income is spent on services ...It's time to rethink some of the expenses

Blankie time

It's been a bit chillly in Miami

Safety First

I really think that people who object to full body scans at airports are either ignorant or have something to hide. True, there will always be someone who tries to abuse the practice, but the alternative stinks. Also, being patted down and searched is more invasive.

Graphic tablet success!!!

I made my very first drawing with the graphics tablet today. It's crude but adorable

3am rambling

Why is it we always re-examine our lives when someone close dies? Living is a story to anticipate...

Rest in Peace, Aunt Maureen...You were loved

My last aunt died in her sleep last night...Possibly all the family secrets went with her. I am sad...I have very fond memories of her and her family gatherings.