One Part Inspiration...

When we moved to The Pokeaway, a co-worker friend gave us a portable dishwasher.  It is in my mudroom and has been one of my go-to tools to try and maintain some semblance of order here.  It has seen many loads go through it and I always whisper a 'thank-you' when I use it. About 8 months ago, we began having problems with it.  When we hooked it up to the faucet, it wouldn't always grab the and soon, we found ourselves having showers when we went to start it up.  The connection would explode.  For a long time, we tried holding our tongues on the other side of our mouths to have more success.  It worked sometimes.  Other times, just as we settled into another activity we would hear the cascading whoosh of water spewing all over the mud room. It got to be, that if we found a way to hook the dishwasher up, where there was no shower happening, we would leave it hooked up for days, without moving it.  This sounds simple enough, un...

This season of life is one resembling a moving sidewalk.  I am am on the sidewalk, but it is steadily moving towards a different destination and there's nothing I can do about it.  This is not always easy, never comfortable and quite often daunting. This year in particular, the sidewalk is moving towards some major changes in our children's lives. And we will reach a few milestones. We have two graduations, a 25th anniversary and and a wedding. With each of these events, the fabric of our family life will be trimmed and shaped into something different than that which we began constructing a quarter of a century ago. Our house has become a revolving door of children moving in and out.  Rather than doing daily life together,  we see each other on a more 'special-occasion-event' basis.  More often than not, arrivals coincide with departures - a tag-team of sorts.  As I come in the door, one of the kids is walking out the door, keys in hand. Our daug...

New Year's Resolutions are always the big topic at this time of year.  I have been thinking about it all week, as the beginning of the year approached and then arrived. It seems everyone is talking about what to do, how to do it, and how they will accomplish all the goals to which they aspire.  Generally the talk is about exercise and diet.  People are interviewed about it and they say they want to be in the best physical condition of their lives.  Then about two months into the year, all sorts of ads appear selling off the treadmills.  Usually there are pictures of the exercise equipment showing coats hanging off the handles, because that is what they default to, after two weeks of not keeping up with the Resolution.  Coat Racks. Radio shows, the TV shows all resort to looking at the way we set ourselves up with Resolutions.  One had a call-in show to 'the doctor' who would give advice about fitness and diet.  A lady called in and complained ...

When one is going to ask a lady to a banquet, one should stand out from one`s peers in the gift he gives.  That`s what I thought anyways, so I bought this rainbow rose, to help him be a cut above the others with dates to said banquet. Here is a better picture of the colours in it.  Aren`t they gorgeous!   I should have ordered one for myself and signed the card from him.  Then he would have scored extra points with his mom.  Especially the sentiments in the card.  They would have made me tear up with how thoughtful he was. `It`s hard to say In words today, Just what you mean to me.......

This picture was taken during the `Christmas Happening` program that I planned and implemented for the Friday before Christmas. We had all sorts of talent represented.   One lady read the poem  My Grown Up Christmas List  - several staff had to step away to wipe their tears because she read it with such meaning. The handbell group played two songs. Both of them were a success - one they played chords, while the audience sang the words; the other was `The Little Drummer Boy`with harmony and melody parts. One gentleman read  My Christmas Adventure with Grandma  and punctuated it with his own commentary such as announcing: `PAGE SEVEN `when he turned to page two of the three-paged story.  It was lengthy, but engaging, and the way he read it, the audience thought he might have written the whole thing himself.   We had a skit,  another gentleman read a poem, the staff choir sang a couple of songs, and a former piano teacher an...