Tuesday, January 19, 2016

Remembering Mother This Wintry Day

Hello!  The snow is falling as I type this.  A good day for staying in, although I did run to the grocery store for a few things before the roads were snow covered.  Today has also been a day of remembering.  My sweet mother's birthday would have been today.  The house below is where she was born.  That is her parents on the right.


As you can see, it wasn't January when this photo was taken.  I don't know what the weather was like the day my mother was born.  No one ever said and I never thought to ask, until today.  Now there is no one to ask.  I suppose it doesn't really matter all that much, it's just curiosity on my part.  But, I do wish I'd paid more attention to details when I had the chance to find out such things.

When I was a youngster, mother was usually found in the kitchen.  Or maybe at the kitchen table where she would set up the sewing machine and sew many outfits for me and for herself.  

She was a wonderful cook, but would say that she had a lot of practice.  Fixing 3 meals a day, 7 days a week and often with some farm hands that my dad had helping him with farm work to feed, too.   She worked hard at keeping her family fed and clothed.  She had to do the laundry the hard way with an old wringer-type washer and then hang the clothes on the line to dry.  I remember helping hang clothes.  That was before the wrinkle-free material existed, of course.  The clothes were brought in when dry, then they were sprinkled down and rolled up and were ironed the next day.  It took many hours to iron clothes for the 5 of us.  My mother almost always wore dresses and when I was very young, we had to wear skirts or dresses to school.  No jeans were allowed on girls unless it was very cold and then we wore them under our dresses.  
 
My mother loved her family and liked to play cards, read and occasionally go fishing.  I remember the times that picnic lunches were fixed and the neighbor friends would all gather at a fishing spot on the creek.  Those were fun times.  She also loved music and enjoyed playing the piano.  

My daughter Kim was the apple of her eye and she would have loved my son, Brett, as well.  She loved sports and would have enjoyed going to their ball games and would have been their biggest cheerleader.   She and BG got along famously because they both loved to talk about the games and watched them together when we were visiting.  She also just thought he was a good guy.  :)  

My daughter was only 5 and my son was 2 weeks old when my mother was taken from us by the horrible disease, ALS.  Many of my long-time blogging friends have read about that.  I was only 31 and I've missed her every day since.  Oh, it's true that time lessens the grief and there are a few days when I might not think of her, but she will always be in my heart.  Always.  I love you, Mom.  Happy Birthday!

I could write a book about my mother, but I'll stop with this poem:

If Roses grow in Heaven, 
Lord please pick a bunch for me,
Place them in my Mother's arms
and tell her they're from me.
Tell her I love her and miss her,
and when she turns to smile,

place a kiss upon her cheek
and hold her for awhile.
Because remembering her is easy, 

I do it every day, but there's an ache
within my heart that will never go away.     
                               ~Author Unknown

Stay safe and stay well!
xo Cheryl

Wednesday, January 13, 2016

Cat Naps


I don't know why this is, but my kitties seem to need to be near me as much as possible lately.  Even Sissy, above, who has never been a lap sitter...and still isn't...wants to be close and jumps up onto the foot rest of the recliner when I'm sitting down.  


Don't mind me...I'm still in my nightie...and trying to read and comment on blogs while Sissy naps by my feet and legs.  Meanwhile there is still room for....


Stormy and....


Callie...who both take turns sleeping on me while I'm trying to hang onto the laptop.  Forget the typing.  Keeping furbabies happy comes first.  I do manage to maneuver the mouse so I can at least read even if I can't type.

I might have even joined them for a little nap every now and then.  It's been a good time for resting lately as it's been too cold to get out of the house.  And most days have been too dark to want to work inside the house.   

We didn't get but a dusting of snow.  That's okay with me as we've had too much rain and didn't need the added moisture.  

With all the Christmas things put away, the house looks bare and in need of a few things to perk it up.  I've tried shopping the house, but nothing appeals to me.  Probably because I've had the same stuff around forever.  I think some of it must have come over on the Mayflower.  Ha!  


The new bathroom looks a little barren.  The only decorative things in there are the bottles I've had for awhile.  And I swear they were evenly spaced before I took this shot!  Must be the angle as I was sitting on the edge of the bathtub.

  
Stormy makes for some cute bathroom decor, doesn't she?  I often find her in the sink, silly girl.  She's so big that she makes the sink look tiny and it really isn't.  

It's supposed to be warmer today, maybe 40 degrees plus.  So I think I will take a spin to the Big Town to look around a couple of flea markets and see what I can find.  

Please forget what I said about staying away from flea markets a post or two ago.  This is serious shopping.  Yes, indeedy.   I need something different to perk up the house.  Also, I think one more piece for my gallery wall is needed, too.   

Have a great day!

xo Cheryl  

Friday, January 8, 2016

The Escape


Every now and then I just want to do nothing but escape from the real world and read feel-good books of a kinder, gentler time by authors such as Gladys Taber.  Or perhaps read Susan Branch's pretty blog.  She has a way of bringing sunshine into the gloomiest days.  And I love to see what her kitties, Jack and Girl Kitty, have been up to.  It's fun to see photos of them on Susan's table or perched high up on a cabinet or sitting on top of a stack of laundry needing to be folded.  It makes me feel like my house is pretty normal after all.  :) 

Wednesday...


To escape from the decluttering project,
needy kitties whining for treats, and the online news that gets more alarming nearly every day, and needing bird seed and wanting to
find a particular book,
I hopped into the car and drove to the Big Town to look around in the book store.  I still had a credit on a gift card to use.  Then, walking down the mall corridor, I stopped at a kiosk and bought the cutest Lang calendar featuring kitties, and marked half-price, for my little office space.


After leaving the mall, and I don't know how it happened, my car just found it's way to the resale shop.  I'm hopeless.  But I only bought a couple of books off the mystery shelf.  One is called The Ideal Man and is most likely more romance than mystery.  The ladies at the counter and I had a good laugh over the title of that book.  Does such a man really exist?  lol!  About as likely to exist as the ideal woman, I'd say!
 
Back home, BG had just gotten in from work and was hungry, so I
warmed up left-over chili from last night.  Then I settled down to 
escape into my new-to-me book to see what an ideal man looked like.  My man took to the couch and escaped into a TV program.

Thursday...

I finished the book which was about a young surgeon who had a couple of bad guys wanting to do away with her, for different reasons, and the FBI agent who rode in on his white horse to save her.  They fell in love (yep, I was right about the romance) mid-way through the book and the ending was pretty much a fore-gone conclusion.  Not even close to being about a kinder, gentler time, but it was an interesting escape read for awhile to see how it would all play out. 

I'd love to escape to a sunny climate about now.  It was dark and it rained all day.  The kind of day that is good to curl up with a good book.  How about you?  Where do you go to escape/get away from it all for awhile?


Friday...


I will be running the vacuum and straightening the house.  Old habits die hard.  I have cleaned house on Fridays most weeks for over 40 years.  You know...in case someone comes by!


Have a nice day and enjoy your weekend, too! 
xo Cheryl

Monday, January 4, 2016

Something Old (A Goal) and Something New


Happy New Year to you!  For me, the year is off to a more relaxed start then it ended.  I've been napping and resting up the last few days.   

We saw the old year end with old friends here for supper.  We had a great time visiting and laughing over some old stories and new ones, too.   Ell admired my red and white buffalo check curtains.

I told her how I'd seen these on several blogs...Ell doesn't blog, so she doesn't know what she's missing with all the wonderful ideas out there...for a few years now.

Anyway, I found buffalo check tablecloths online several months ago and ordered a couple in red and white, also a pair in black and white for when I wanted a different look.  I just bought those rings with clips and put them on the rod.  No sewing was required.  I also ordered 4 napkins which I used to drape over the rod in the smaller window over the kitchen sink.
 
I had planned to get them hung up before Christmas, but procrastinator that I am, I put it off.  There are many other things I put off last year, too.  I have many goals for this year and one is to get back at the decluttering.  I'm determined to get better organized and only live with those things that I really love or need. 

There are so many things that I don't need taking up space, but it is very hard to part with them.  For example, I have 3 sets of  long-stemmed crystal goblets.  One set is mine, one set I inherited from my mother and one set from my grandmother.  All are sets of 12.  I love them all, but I know I don't need them.  I don't even use mine when I set the table for special occasions, preferring to use a more simple, larger goblet.  I don't see myself parting with any of them, not yet.   

Now that I've stated that I have too much stuff, someone please tell me to just look and not buy even if it's a great bargain when I go to the resale shop!   Well, okay...it depends on what it is.  :)

I hope your new year is off to a good start.   Take care and stay well.

xo Cheryl