A Day to Remember

It's hard to believe that May is almost over, but here we are at Memorial Day. It's supposed to be a day set aside to remember and honor our brave servicemen and women who died while defending our great nation. Over the years we have seemingly moved further and further away from the original intent of the day.  The real Memorial Day is actually May 30th. I guess holidays that are not always attached to a weekend are inconvenient so the official observance was moved to the last Monday in May. Then it was kind of high-jacked by retailers hoping to boost their sales six months after "Black Friday".  Now, thanks (in my humble opinion) to both regular and social media, it has been confused with Veterans Day and we are inundated with reminders to thank a service person for their service. I'm not saying we shouldn't thank all our servicemen and women. While it is important to always be thankful for their sacrifice, it feels like we are forgetting the ones we lost. That's if we remember anything about this day and don't simply look at it as the first day of summer which of course it isn't because that comes toward the end of June. 

It's good to see that most towns have at least memorial services on this day. Some also have parades before or after such services. I think that as long as those traditions are carried on future generations will know what this day is really about and never forget our fallen heroes.

Lessons From Mom

This is the last photo I took of my mother. It was at her 76th birthday party in my back yard. Here she is with all her grandchildren. Eleven months later she was gone, succumbing to Alzheimer's and pneumonia. We all miss her terribly.

We all learn things from our mothers, sometimes things they don't intend to teach us, and some that they do. Some of what I learned is listed below.

~ yyur, yyub, icuryy 4 me!

   (Too wise you are, too wise you be, I 

    see you are too wise for me!). She 

    wrote that in my autograph book when 

     I was about 9. I don't have the book

    but never forgot the clever way it was

     written.

~Getting up early won't hurt you.

~it's possible to stack the washed dishes

  from dinner for a family of 6 like 

  pieces of a Jenga game.

~fresh baked cookies are always

  appreciated.

~Laughter daily is important.

~If you do your errands and housework    

   early in the day you can have time for

   yourself.

~Sometimes moms cry.

~Letting your kids be independent is

  important.

~Freshly brewed iced tea is best.

~Home made lemonade from scratch is 

   worth the effort.

~Walking through the woods and 

  stopping to have a cheese sandwich 

  at "diamond rock" is a great way to  

  spend a summer afternoon.

~It's ok to express your opinion.

~The simple things are what make life

   good.

What kinds of things did you learn from your mother?

~ 

Piece of Cake!

My father always said he never met a piece of cake he didn't like. I said that too until a couple of years ago. At work we used to take turns bringing in a treat to share during our break. Usually it was cake, but sometimes it was brownies or quiche or pie. One time it was lemon bars and freshly brewed iced tea. It was all delicious and shared freely between us regular workers and substitutes alike. One day one of our frequent subs brought in a cake. We were pretty excited, (hey, a treat is a treat--it doesn't take much! Haha!), and asked her what kind of cake it was. I will use only her initial, S. She  told us it was a mung bean cake. None of us, with the exception of my friend A  never heard of such a thing! I began to feel skeptical at the word "bean" as I am not a fan. The word "mung" didn't sound too appetizing either! As it turned out, our break was delayed that day so we decided to try the cake as we were working. I let some of the others try it first and they said things like "interesting!" "mmmm!" And "not too sweet!" as they stood around the table with S looking on. I took a small piece and a small bite. I quickly excused myself on the pretense of a task urgently awaiting me in the next room. I walked right over to the trash can, spit the cake into a paper towel and sent the rest of my piece after. I did not like it at all! To me it tasted like dirt mixed with green beans. That is the only piece of cake I ever had that I didn't like; although I didn't say that to S. I simply went back where the others were after a few minutes and thanked her for bringing in a treat to share; and refused a second piece, of course! I can't recommend that you ever try mung bean cake for yourself, but of course that's entirely up to you. As for me, I'm sticking with the traditional flavors like yellow and chocolate. If I want something different I might go for carrot or banana. But never again mung bean!

Something About Spring

There’s something special about spring. It’s not my favorite season, but I do enjoy it.  The days get longer little by little, trees begin to come back to life after the long winter, the sun is stronger and even on chilly days it feels good; snow and ice become memories of the trials of the winter, and hints of life beginning anew are seen everywhere. It’s a good time to try something new, rearrange things a bit and cast off old unused things to create some room in your closets, your house, yard and most importantly your life.  Those spaces will surely be filled up in no time with new and different things.  There’s something exciting about changing things a bit.  As I go through my clothes I think about when I wore things last, and decide what I still like and what I want to give away. Unused items from the kitchen cabinets will surely be bought by someone shopping at Goodwill or the Salvation Army store. Those old books will be opened with delight by someone this summer looking to pass a hot day in the shade reading while sipping an ice cold drink.  As we trim bushes and cut down saplings in the yard and rake leaves off the flower beds we plan what plants or seeds we will try there this year and vow to use our outdoor space more this year than last, changing where we put the picnic tables, benches and chairs as we sip the season’s first iced tea when the yard work is done for the day.  Spring is time to light the grill and taste the season’s first hot dogs and barbequed chicken and macaroni salad.  This year I decided to try a new hairstyle for spring and so far I can’t decide if I like it or not, but my friends and co-workers approve so I’ll keep it at least for now. There’s just something about spring that begs for things to be changed and spruced up, like we are celebrating the end of winter and dormancy and coming back to life.  I think it’s better than New Years for inducing change.  I hope you have a happy spring!

New Gadgets

Recently we upgraded to new iPhones.  Not the latest model, but still a newer model than we had.  We also purchased a wireless printer for the first time.  Imagine typing in the comfort of the living room and sending something to the printer without getting up!  Sounds good to me!

         I am notoriously bad at adapting to new technology so all things considered I am handling this fairly well.  The phone has been a breeze as the young people in the phone store were good at explaining things in language I understand, even if they were talking so fast it was difficult to keep up at times.  I was able to transfer almost everything from the old to the new by myself with just a couple of questions for my twenty-something daughter and my husband once we were home.  It’s kind of fun perusing the different ringtones and alert sounds then assigning them to different contacts and applications.  I was even able to print a picture from the phone as I nested in my couch corner.  It was with bold confidence that I set up my laptop on the dining room table and attempted to send a document to the magical wireless printer after so successfully sending something from my phone.  Alas! My technological wizardry ended abruptly!  Try as I might, I just couldn’t get the document to print.  I called my daughter into the room to see what I might be doing wrong but nothing we tried worked.  It was after eight p.m. and we were both tired so I decided to just forget it for the time being, shut things down and figure it out the next day.  Finally, mid-day, I had a chance to power up both printer and computer.  I was determined to print that document!  As I was waiting for the laptop to boot up after turning the printer on, it began to print the document from the night before, spitting papers out at rapid pace.  As I bent to pick the first page up off the floor more papers fluttered around me and slid under the table and chairs.  Subsequently I sent another document to be printed and first thought it wasn’t going to work when suddenly with a few whirs and clicks papers began shooting out in rapid succession.  This time I was able to catch them as they flew out before they hit the floor.

         I’m proud of myself for having such a smooth transition to my new electronic equipment.  Now I just have to figure out the older gadgets and computer programs I need to use.  That ought to be a piece of cake.  Gosh!  I love technology!