Happy Mother's Day!... I mean week! Seriously. I've been scrolling since Monday through the most heartfelt memories and photos from every Mama I know - young and old, including some of the young girls I know who grew up with my sons, stopping to have an "awwww...." moment, and even get a little choked up. Now they know how sweet it is to carry a baby, and how slow, yet how fast those nine precious months go by. Oh young ladies, you will forever cherish those sweet bumps! "Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward." Psalm 127:3 Social Media's "Post your baby bump pictures for Mother's Day!" challenges abound this weekend, and mine are now 28 and 30, and have wives. One of them has a one son, two daughters, and a coop full of chickens, and the ... View Post
Adios, April 2022!
Uneventful. That's how I would describe April 2022 - not because I didn't do anything, but because it was a pretty low-key month. On April 1st I turned 59. So strange how time flies faster and faster as you age... except winters. Winters definitely don't go by quickly. Winters, in fact, get longer and longer, and summers get shorter and shorter. It's a fact. I spent April catching up with people I hadn't seen for a while, and missed a LOT over the past two years. Since the snow and rain stuck around nearly every day, I was able to enjoy my see-through bubble umbrella, which I think is soooo fun! I enjoyed some lengthy phone dates with Annie and Sharon, I exchanged several pen-pal-like emails with my friend Mary, and Edna cooked me a birthday meal after work one day, and we ... View Post
Picnic Tables, Clotheslines, Kids, & Pot Roasts (not necessarily in that order)
My favorite place to visit is still my kitchen table. Most of the time my tablecloth doesn't match the rest of my decor. It seems more and more lately I need to keep cleaning it off too, because I spend a lot of time there, and for some odd reason, more than before. Breakfast, dinner, bills, homework, blogging, letter writing. (Yes, I still write old fashioned letters... handwritten, even). Recently Lyla, Owen, and I made caterpillar biscuits there, and rolled cookie dough onto a baking sheet. LIFE still happens at the kitchen table in my house. When I opened an airbnb, I made sure the kitchen was spotless with a little help from Hollywood florida airbnb cleaning services since I know people would be gathering there all of the time. There are a few girlfriends I've been trying to ... View Post
Say No to the Butt Lifter, & Get Yourself Some Pearls
Deciding what I'm going to wear to work tomorrow is not going to be difficult. I wear scrubs every day. Truly, the biggest decision I'm going to make regarding my wardrobe in the morning is whether or not I'm going to search for the matching sock, or just grab whatever. I mean - most of the time my socks match, but honestly... sometimes, I've got the green shamrock "Happy St. Paddy's Day" on the left, and Nurse socks on the right that say "show me your stethoscope." If I ever get in an accident and wind up in an ER, it'll be a good laugh for the staff. They might even know I did it on purpose. But on Saturday and Sunday, it's a completely different story. Yesterday I was getting ready for an outing with some girlfriends. Just like back when I was 18, there were about five ... View Post
Jimmy, The Irish Plumber
This morning I threw in some DVD's of my sons when they were young. Lyla and Owen were here, and they wanted to see what Daddy was like when he was a little boy. Well, they thought Daddy was a cute baby, that their little sister Maci looks just like him, and they thought that I looked absolutely ridiculous as a brunette. In fact, videos of me with my curly brunette hair sent them into a giggling fit that lasted way too long, and resulted in Owen almost choking on his own laughter. Lyla and Owen watched their Dad learn how to bowl, and play horse shoes down at the Yacht Club in Grosse Ile with the old Irish Crowd. I can't remember the event, but we never really needed a reason to gather and have fun. My mom was right when she told me to head down to the Gaelic League in search of ... View Post
Cracked Heart Dump
It's Monday, and I ought to have been refreshed, rested, ready to take on the world on a Monday morning - and I guess I was in a way, because I did get to spend Saturday doing laundry and cleaning my house really well, (really, really well - like, I washed every baseboard in the whole 1000 square feet I reside in). Yep. But man oh man, did it ever feel good to sit down in the evening after a bubble bath and enjoy my hard work! And I did get to have lunch with a group of ladies after church, and a visit in the afternoon from two of my close friends. So, I should feel rested and ready to go on Monday morning, right? But it's amazing how much the junk in my life will try to sink me... I felt emotionally exhausted today, beginning very early this morning. Then, an email came ... View Post
March… Muah!
I'm about to be up past my bedtime, but sticking to my goal of blogging every month in 2022! Turning back to the month of March in my calendar, I'm now convinced that cute little calendars with small pages will likely never, ever work for me. March was CRAZY busy! If you're feeling led to pray for me, please pray that the IRS cashes the check I sent them very early in March. I check daily, a little concerned that they won't let me know they've received it before March 15. I took my Mom to see Mary Poppins, Jr. at a local theater, and then out for Mexican food for her 85th birthday. She enjoyed herself, but I'm not sure she'd do it again. I must be the only nerd in the family who enjoys local theater. The absolute HIGHLIGHT of my month was getting a visit from my friends of ... View Post
Dinosaurs & Marbles
French fries on the floor of the back seat, mud tracked up the stairs on the light grey carpet, crumbs under the kitchen table, hand prints on the freshly windex'd front door... When we're young Moms, we're certain we'll never, ever miss these things. Last week, Edna called laughing, excited to tell me about her Saturday morning doing house chores. Vacuuming under the living room couch, she came across her great grandson's toy dinosaur - a reminder of his recent visit. She was laughing HYSTERICALLY! Just a little while after our conversation, I felt as though I too, should probably vacuum under my couch, and lo and behold - 3 marbles came rolling out from a game Owen, Lyla and I played when they visited me a few months ago. Let's face it. We really DON'T miss the crumbs, the ... View Post