Park Days

Recently I’ve started going to the park more often, there are nice walking paths at our park in town and at a park in a neighboring town.  Our park is fairly young, built on old farm land and they are still developing areas of it.  I like to go there alone because the terrain is hard to push Hillary’s chair around since there are so many ups and downs and she is heavy.  Plus there’s a gazebo there where I like to sit and read or sketch.  It’s near the all veterans memorial and so pleasant when there is a breeze and all the flags are making that little snapping noise as they dance on the wind.  It faces, as well, out over a pond and there are trees and bushes nearby where birds twitter and chirp in the morning sun.  

Looking across a soccer field toward the pond at my town park.

The last time I went there I walked along the paved path until I got to a newer ball field with a dirt road running along it and followed that until it ended with dirt piles on one side and a gate blocking traffic on the other.  The look and smell of it brought me back to childhood and the “new road” by our house.  It was a dirt road edged by wildflowers and weeds on each side and eventually it was paved but for the longest time wasn’t and was blocked off on each end by phone poles.  We walked along that road to get to the local Acme grocery store, my friend Cathy’s house, middle school, and sometimes to walk to church.  I loved the sound of my sneakers crunching on the stones and used to pick Queen Anne’s Lace as I walked along.  Later at home I’d put the flowers into a glass with colored water and watch as they turned blue or yellow as they sucked up the liquid.  Those were nice days.  How pleasant it was to relive those times as I walked in the park, and reflect on nice memories as I sat in the gazebo sketching a tree that day.

         A few days later I took Hillary to the park in the next town over.  The paths there are easy to push her on as it’s flat there and wind through sunny fields and under shady trees giving us a nice mixture of sun and shade so we didn’t get over heated.  I love the smell of a field in the hot summer sun and Hillary enjoys being on the go and looking all around.  Later we found a bench along a tree lined path by the lake and relaxed there, having a picnic lunch and enjoying the beautiful day and scenery.

         A trip to the park leaves me feeling refreshed and rested as spending time in nature generally does.  It’s one of my favorite things to do in the summer months.

In A Slump

         I’ve been in a bit of a writing slump lately, in fact I’ve been in a life slump since my last day of work (until September).  It feels as if everything is out of whack somehow.  I’m not sure why exactly. There are phone calls and appointments I need to make for me and for Hillary but I just keep putting them off—procrastination!  There are closets and cabinets that need a good cleaning out and other cleaning projects I plan to do over the two short months before I return to work.  There are bushes to be trimmed and weeds to pull and there are spiders to be dealt with out there!  In past years we’ve had those big striped spiders that I hate to deal with, this year it’s smaller neon green ones which are more difficult to get rid of, it seems. When they spin a web, it’s layered and those smart little buggers hang out on the underside so the top layer is protecting them from my bug spray. It seems their favorite place to build a web is between the bushes and my daughter’s car.  You think I hate spiders?  She hates them more. It’s as if they know this and taunt her by hanging out where she will walk.  Ugh!  Inside I have papers to shred, and plants to repot—there’s so much to do and I feel like doing none of it.  If this were my job I’d be right on it; breaking it down to this task one day, that task another and so on until all the extra stuff was done. So easy to say that I’ll treat it that way, but my boss (me) is easy going and says, “Take the day off if you want!”  My boss needs to get tougher on me! Ha ha!  Maybe my boss needs to give me some rewards for completing those tasks.  Work for 3 hours and then get a coffee and read a book break for 30 minutes, then work another hour and call it a day.  It sounds good on paper, but putting that into practice, like taking a daily walk and flossing twice a day (as my dental hygienist recently advised me to do) takes a lot of discipline which apparently     I DON’T HAVE!  I don’t think I’m alone in all this either.  I think that most of us have some trouble getting ourselves to fill in our time off with that good mix of productive work and relaxing, fun leisure time.  Time for me to go check something off that to do list and try to get out of this life slump.  Apparently since I’ve just finished this post I’m coming out of the writing slump.  At least for now.  Hey, baby steps!

        

        

Lunch Lady Taboos

You've seen those lists on Facebook, "things to never say to a horse" or "don't say these things to a contractor" but I've never seen one about lunch ladies so, I thought I'd make one: 

10 Things Never To Ask A Lunch Lady

1.) how hard is it to throw food on a plate, really?

2.) why do you charge such a high price for lunch?

3.) you know my taxes pay your salary, right?

4.) why can't I have extra food?

5.) can I pay you tomorrow?

6.) is this food organic?

7.) what is this?

8.) can you toast this sandwich?

9.)is this Pizza Hut pizza?

10.) where did you get that outfit?

Memory, A Source of Comfort

         When the day to day never ending sameness of caring for my adult daughter starts to get to me I mentally excuse myself for a few minutes to take a walk down Memory Lane.  It gets me out of the present physical situation or task that I can’t leave.

          In the summers when both my girls were young, perhaps 5 and 2 years old, we went to our town’s lake beach in the afternoons.  Since my younger one can’t walk, and I have always been determined to give her a life full of “normal” activities, I found that getting her across the sand was easiest in a bucket type baby sled we used in winter for playing in snow.  While her mental development is delayed, her physical development has always been right on schedule so she was a little bit too tall to be sitting propped up in the infant’s sled.  One day as I was pulling her across the sand, lugging a tote bag, umbrella and chair, I stopped to look around for a good spot and found that she had fallen over—sled and all!  Judging by the trail in the sand I’d been pulling her that way for about 20 feet. The whole side of her head was covered in sand.  I felt so bad!  Righting her, I brushed the sand off her face and out of her hair as best I could as she just looked at me with an expression that said “Good one, Mom!” We set up camp in that spot and continued with our afternoon.  I took her into the water in a turtle shaped float and we played with her sister and the other kids there, then she and I headed back to our little oasis where she napped wrapped in a dry towel and I read a book while her sister played. Those were such pleasant times.  I’m glad I have them in my arsenal of quick getaways which bring me the comfort of knowing that in spite of the routine “not normal” things we must do every day to care for her we have had “normal” fun over the years.

 

Rainy Monday Thoughts

Rain means a free car wash! No more green pollen dust & bird poop on the driver's window--Yay!

All the plants get a good soaking. So good for their roots!

It's cool so we can save $$ on the a/c.

I think the neighbors are going to be upset when they return from vacation to find their little screen house didn't survive the thunderstorms.

It's a good day to make banana bread and macaroni & cheese.

Rainy days & evenings are a good time to watch reruns on TV. Also for curling up on the couch with a book.

It's not a good day for the Keurig to break, but at least the teakettle still works!

I'll appreciate the sun so much more when it returns!