Not Me Monday!

While enjoying the blogginess of others it is NOT possible that I have have not blogged since the beginning of January! No not me! I have been following a fun blog whose author always treats us to a "Not-me-Monday" post. She also asks us to join her in hosting our own "Not-me-Monday" post. So here I go ready or not!

Since I last joined you my friendly blog readers, the following has NOT happened to our family!

Our son-in-law was certainly NOT hit by a truck while training for a marathon! And of course since he was NOT hit by the truck -he did NOT have his elbow broken, followed by surgery with NOT 1 screw but 2 and 15 staples! NO not in our lifetime!

My precious husband who was out chopping wood for my fire-did NOT connect the axe and a large log to his large toe! NO NOT HIM! And the picture is a figment of your imagination!


Our 3rd daughter, who is expecting any minute certainly did NOT go into early labor only to be sent home from the hospital a few hours later! NO SHE DID NOT! And because she did not have the baby early, I MOST certainly will NOT be winging my way later this week to the windy city to witness the birth our 4th grandbaby! :)

On Valentine's Day my dear husband did NOT bring me a full giant heart full of yummy chocolates... and because he did not bring them I have not eaten my way into a chocolate stupor, NO NOT ME!

On this delightful 4 day holiday weekend I HAVE MOST CERTAINLY NOT AVOIDED GRADING PAPERS and doing LESSON PLANS! No not me!

I have not stayed up to late, I have not exhausted myself from hours on facebook,bloglines, and twitter! NOPE NOT me!

Having completed this assignment! I am now free to continue my NOT ME MONDAY PRESIDENTS DAY!

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

The Horse Drawn Trolley Comes to Goldsboro

For the second year we were able to take our two oldest granddaughters, Anna Marion and Emma Grace, to ride the free horse-drawn trolley, and to see the lights in downtown Goldsboro. These are some bullet thoughts and a few shots from the night!
* COLD
* A LONG WAIT IN A LONG LINE
* ONE CUP OF HOT CHOCOLATE SHARED BY ALL
* A LONG WAIT
* DID WE MENTION COLD? ( well, cold by Goldsboro standards)
* CHRISTMAS LIGHTS
* HORSES
* A WAGON
* FINALLY OUR TURN!
* A HAT FLYING OFF INTO THE STREET
* A GOOD SAMARITIAN RETURNING THE HAT VIA DRIVE BY TOSS

* A SWEET GRANDPA TELLING US THE STORY OF THE HORSES

* A MEMORY MADE

* HOME BY BEDTIME

Hands

"Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might." Ecc. 9:10



Hands have always fascinated me! I love the dimples in baby hands. I love watching young children use their hands to master the use of crayons and pencils. I love watching my husband's hands when he plays the piano. I remember holding my Uncle Harry's big, rough hands and coming to the realization that his hands were both rough and gentle at the same time. I remember playing with and pulling at the "chicken skin" on my grandmother's hands and thinking that surely I would NEVER get wrinkly skin like that! I would sit for hours and watch the blacksmith's hands as he would shoe our horses.

One of my favorite Peanuts cartoons from years ago was a strip about Hands. At the risk of causing Charles Schultz to spin in his grave I will attempt to do the strip justice. Charlie is walking along rather proud of himself and he holds his hands up, looks at them and declares that "these hands will do great things, these hands can save the world... etc." Well, you get the point. He continues with his dialogue about his hands when Lucy comes along, takes one look at his hands and says; "They have jelly on them!" Suddenly dejected, Charlie Brown walks away hands in pockets with his head down.

In the span of my life time my hands have washed thousands of dishes, washed cloth baby diapers using an old fashioned scrub board in a bathtub. These hands have used an old fashioned wringer washer, and have tried to send the hands through the wringer! These hands have kneaded bread, pulled weeds, "mucked" horse stalls, groomed horses, painted walls, cared for patients in hospitals, scrubbed floors by hand on hands and knees, these hands welded Zenith television chassis, played games, cared for children, have taught kindergardeners to write, cleaned factories and empty apartments and the list could go on and on.

Most of the time I can say that whatever my hands have found to do, I have done with all of my might. If hands could talk what a story they would tell. I would still love to learn American Sign Language which is an amazing use of the hands. I am sure there is still plenty let for my hands to do... but today I realized that I have "chicken skin" on my hands, my hands are now as old as my grandmother's were when I would pull on the loose skin on her hands.

But that is okay, these hands can still do great things, even if they have "chicken skin", even if they have jelly on them!

Welcome to the New Year!

Essayist John Burroughs once said "One resolution I have made and try always to keep is this: To Rise Above the Small Things~"

I think for the coming year this would be a wonderful resolution indeed.

When I began this blog almost a year ago, I could never have imagined how much would happen in that time. One of the things that slowed me down this year was that I often allowed the small things to consume my think time. And so for the coming year I, along with Burroughs, will attempt "To Rise Above the Small Things"!

What are the small things that keep you from rising?

Perhaps the Last Post of 2008

...but I have the entire night to reflect and so maybe it won't be the last post of 2008.

Earlier today I shared the following over at Antique Mommy's blog in response to her question about what would we remember about this Christmas.

I will remember this Christmas with a slightly sad yet grateful heart. What I will remember sadly is that for the first time in the lives of my 5 children they were not all physically’together’ for Christmas. But at least we were just a phone call,a text message,an IM, or even a web cam away from each other. One with a high risk first pregnancy in IL, One with a collapsed lung in a NJ hospital, One trying for 4 days ,stranded in an airport, to get home. One family with three little ones with pink eye and a stomach virus, and one family with a bad case of flu. Oh and have we shared the above love with others! :)

I will remember that for those of us who were together (sick as we were), we laughed and played and made the best of being together even in times of ‘not so great’!

I will remember that on the night that our Savior was born, Mary and Joseph had to travel outside of their comfort zone, they were away from family and friends, their lodgings were less than AAA approved, and yet there in the hay far from their home, a miracle, Christmas happened right there as that little “Stranger in the Straw” was born.

So yes, I will remember with a grateful heart, that regardless of our circumstances, Christmas will still be Christmas even if only in our hearts.

The First Decision of the new year, or the last decision of this year!

Given where we now live, going to NYC for the big crystal ball drop is probably not going to happen. Although this New Year's Eve, I am told that NYC is bringing in the coolest portable toilets! But I digress- here in the south we do things just a little differently. I must decide whether to go the Raleigh for the giant copper ACORN drop, (With droppings (( you know what I mean)) at 7:00 for the kiddies and 12:00 for the party goers), or should I go to Mt. Olive, home of the Mt. Olive pickle company and be there for the giant pickle drop?

Now if I still had small children at home I might lean towards the ACORN. But since I am older and very fond of pickles (although the story does not specify if the pickle is a Sweet Baby Gherkin, or a baby dill. I lean towards the sweet gherkins variety!) and since Mt. Olive is just down the road apiece, I guess the pickle drop would be my 1st choice. I know we won't have Dick Clarke or Ryan Seacrist for that matter. But perhaps the mayor will be there or the CEO of said pickle company. This one thing I know, 2009 is going to arrive regardless of what drops from where. And with the new year we all have new opportunities to make a change and a difference! Just like the differences that Raleigh and Mt. Olive are making with their unique answer to those in NYC! VIA LA DIFFERENCE!

Christmas Past...

It was the Christmas of 1950 in a tiny third floor tenement apartment in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. This was my first Christmas with Thelma, my then twenty something-single-mother. We had just come home from Plymouth, New Hampshire, where I was born in less than auspicious circumstances, in a hospital which has since been torn down, I might add. My grandmother had allowed Thelma to fix-up the tiny third floor attic apartment where we could live! As angry as my grandmother had been that my mother had become pregnant, all it took was one look at me to melt her heart! I can have that affect on people! :)

This is the early version of the porta-crib! Notice the statue of a saint in the window... this was during my short lived Catholic period, followed by the longer Episcopalian period.

In 1952 Santa and I had a great deal to talk about! When we gave a copy of this picture to my great-grandmother she proceeded to tear Santa out of the picture because, as she said "We don't know him" and indeed we did not!

Well, Santa came through and I received the BIG dolly I was longing for! Isn't she cute? Aren't we both cute? Check out the wallpaper and sofa contrast in flowers... my my my!

Christmas in 1955 or 56 in Miami, Florida and the last Christmas I would spend with my mother for many years! The next several Christmases I would spend surrounded by 15 or 16 "strays" all living in the care of Harry and Marie Ingals on 101st Street on the Northwest side of Miami, just over the bridge from Hialeajh. Those Christmases would the most secure of my childhood.

Wherever you spend this Christmas I pray it will be safe and secure and full of love and spent with those for whom you care deeply.