Am I starting too soon?

Am I starting too soon? 

It was a beautiful day… afternoon on Saturday.

I was looking at the yard work to be done. Bushes

that need to be trimmed…  Roses bushes to be trimming,

Clematis that need to be cut..   And oh my gosh, the flower

beds that are hugely over grown with dead leaves of last

years bulbs..  Oh, so much to do.

So with the weather being in the high 40’s, I set out and

cut the leaves off the bulbs.   And decided after I got rid

of it all… down to 2 to 3 inches… 4 feet of them.. 

These bulbs have got to go..   As my memory of last year as I was

doing the same at the end of March… what the heck are these

anyway, I thought..  Well they turn out to be LOTS OF GREEN LEAVES.. and then tiny iris’s.  Well, they are probably call something else,but that is what they look like.   As I was dealing with this mass of thin loooooooooooooong leaves… I see the bulbs look like they have multiplied.. Oh, these bulb have to go.

But not looking into digging down about 5 or 6 inches ..4 feet of

It by 2 and half deep… right now I think the ground is frozen.

With the weather warming up more.. going to be 50 something

On Saturday… there is more to cut.. (tiger lilies, roses to trim, bushes to tied up after I trim them… Am I starting too soon?

And this bush... looked so awesome.... I am going to cut them as they grow back fast....and this will be come old cane.... and give them to the local florist to use in her flower arrangements...

YAHTZEE….

I am beginning to hate Yahtzee…

See it is the King’s new obsession.

We use to play off and on…  usually winter

When we didn’t have anything to do, and nothing

Was worth watching on tv..  Not real often, but quite a

Few times during the winter.

I was cleaning off my shelf near my computer and came across

the dices and the pad of papers..  His eyes lit up.. YAHTZEE..

LET’S PLAY…  so after I got the shelves clean and threw stuff

away.. (I should have throw the pad away too)

Because EVERY DAY…  3 TIMES A DAY.. HE WANTS TO PLAY   …. YAHTZEE…  After I am done with reading the paper and doing the crossword puzzle… he is ready.. dice are out.. sheets of paper are ready!!!

After he eats lunch… it is YAHTZEE time.. out come the dice and papers..

And then after dinner.. it is YAHTZEE time…

What makes it worse he is damn good at it…  He really gets into the shaking of the dice…  (I am getting a headache) and YAHOO.. if it is a true Yahtzee.. or he gets the large straight as a natural (meaning first throw out, he gets the full 5 dice run.  He has a knack of getting 2 YAHTZEE many times..  Now I am not an aggressive player.. and happy when my opponent gets a good throw.   And if I get a Yahtzee… I am shocked..  and I get the bonus above about half the time..  And  I am ok with that.. I like to play for fun.  Not the King, he goes out for blood, and yahooing many times..

Lucky for me.. it only has 6 games on each sheet.. and by game 6, I am to the point to just get it over with.. lol.. 

So you are probably asking.. why do I play?  Because I love him.. and he gets so much joy out of it..  And what the hell, what else do I have to do, so why not..  

PS.. don’t tell him I am getting to hate Yahtzee.. it might upset him.. lol Besides it is so much fun to watch him as he gets his second Yahtzee... I expect him to get up and do a victory dance... lol

Count down…

countdown….     18  Days and   49   days …

count down to March 5 and then April 5..

March 5^th this blog will be 15 years old.. wow.. I stuck with this for 15 years?   It started out as a daily blog.. a few times twice in one day…. Then it ran Monday thru Friday with holidays off.. And vacation off..  And now the shell of the former blog.. is only twice a week.   And it seems like every year for the past 4 or so.. I have question if I would keep going as the March date comes around. It gets harder to come up with a subject unless something has pissed me off and I need the soapbox to stand on.. or just general interest.

My original readers have gone on to better things to do with their lives.. with except of the one who reads this by paper.  As I make a copy for her and send it to her to read..  And she shares it with her girlfriends… They are my only steady who have started from the beginning. And my greatest fans…

Even my own children do not read my blog. A couple have read maybe one or two.. as I gave them heads up I was writing about them… lol.. or something for them to remember.   But out of the 8… only 3 I think have read it.  And if they read more than 4 … I surely would be surprised. 

Also I think it is harder because it is winter and I am not doing anything except shoveling snow.  In the spring and summer there is more to do, more to talk about and pictures to take.  Maybe that is how I get thru the rest of the year without so much doubt of why am I doing this?   

It started out as a soapbox and also a blog of humor of my stupidity. Be it doing crafts or some other project I have taken in and over my head… After all, if one can’t laugh at themselves.. then  do they have the right to laugh at others?

And also Dave Oliveria of the Spokane Review blog Huckleberry’s Online   convinced me that I could do this. And Marianne Love of Slight Detour’s blog had in it’s corner.. YOU TOO CAN DO A BLOG.. IT IS AS SIMPLE AS 1..2..3.. to set up.. and dang if it wasn’t right… And down the road  Toni B. help me with the art work in the background.. the rest of it .. I stumbled thru and got some of it set up.

So dear readers..  here we go for the count down.. Oh, …the 5 of April… is when I hit the big 80… which is going to be LOUD and PROUD..   LOUD.. because I am getting harder to hear any one.. so SPEAK UP… and Proud..  because I made it to 80..  

Teaching your spouse….about life

Teaching your spouse….about life

Now that is a misleading title.. but yet not.

In a marriage there seems to be just one of you, who does all the bill paying.. starts the loans, puts in for mortgage information. And the rest of the financial part of your marriage life.   A lot of men do it, so they don’t have to have their wives worry..  The wife takes care of the house hold… and the man takes care of the finances.  It is a nice system over all.. but it can have its down side.

Each side should teach the other side how to do their responsibilities.  How many wives who have been thunder struck when their husband has died?   Having no clue what to do. What they owe, when the payments are due?  How to refinance if they have to?  How much do you know about your family finances? 

In my life.. and with me turning 80 this year.. I have had the King sit down with me and do the monthly bills.  How I have it set up. What bills are automatically paid by the bank.   I have a book, that is set up with the month, and the list of bills going down the page.. This the check and amount I paid for that bill for the month… so that way we can know which got paid.. and which ones are still due for the month.  Also if for some reason a company says a bill was not paid.. there I have the information.. find the paper work for it. And show them, it was in fact paid. By what check and what day.   He knows where to look for those monthly bills….He also knows how the check book it set up to get these bills paid..  He also knows there is a page for those for quarterly, semi and annually bills.. like house taxes, house insurance..  vehicle registration, vehicle insurances  and etc.

So he will know which are paid and which are not.. and to make sure they will be paid, as it also tells when they are due. 

So how about your household?   Do know all that information?  Or are you the one who takes care of it?  Does your spouse know the information, in case you can’t?   Does your spouse know where the life insurances policies are?   Do they know the health insurance information is, in case you go into the hospital?  

We really need to trust each other enough to have both be able to take over the chore, just in case….

Oh, yea, it is just important for your husband to know how to run the washing machine, dryer and oven.. dish washer, and what to use with each one.. and not use with it.. lol

Cleaning the computer is like….

Cleaning a computer is like cleaning a closet but worse.

Cleaning a closet, I swear the items bred and multiplied…

Cleaning computer seem like a never ending ordeal.

Our church sent out a request for old computers to take to Honduras .. to a school that we help out.  We have one that is over 10 years old.. which is like ancient …

I used it for a back up, so had removed a lot of stuff off of it..I THOUGHT.. also I had put the King as another users.. so there was his stuff.. 

Well, it was 6 hours later, much frustration, and a headache,later too.   There was a document folder.. THERE WAS 300! Items in there..  Holy crap..  So spend at least an hour and half going true and down sized it to about 130…  Then there was pictures.. Mine was easy as I had removed most… but the Kings.. oooooooooooh… the headaches start… As I had to go thru them and delete the horrible ones..  You know the kind where the scan across the valley are just a blur… or the people are a blur…or some are super short with nothing but a foot showing.   I had to look at each one, as there was some that started out the first 20 second of what the heck is this.. to become.. something important at the end..  Such as our son in law who passed away .. playing with his grandchildren…. Or my grandson in Hawaii trying to learn how to play the uke…

But after 6 hours, I had what I wanted to keep on a flash drive.. I deleted a heck of a lot of stuff… I set up a new users so the church could use that.. and deleted the Kings account and mine..  leaving USER for  theirs.. with a password….. and a slip of paper taped to the keys.. with their user name and password… so they could open it and see if it was worth their time.. because it is soooooooooooooooo slow..

I got to figure out why I had to save so much junk on there.. which I can only wonder about the one I am typing on right now.. Don’t even want to think about it..   Some of it is serious stuff so family should read it.. but 91% is probably junk.. to others..

I got to go get an aspirin… my head still hurts..

The many faces of Mourning

The many faces of Mourning

We all know that mourning take different routes, and length in time for many.  Some can rejoice in that person going to heaven after great pain. But missing them in their lives.  Some can’t get pass the emptiness.  Some have regrets when the person was alive, not saying or doing something with them. . 

There is the mourning of a parent.. yet knowing that parent lived a good life.  Those who lose a parent who is young.. mourn what could have been.  The baseball games missed, the wedding missed the birth of a grandchild missed and shared. 

There is the mourning of a sibling.  As the empty chair will always be there.  No matter how much you were or were not involved in their adult lives… you will always miss that sibling.  And too, if that sibling passed at a young age, it is the mourning of what could have been, growing up..  A brother is always a brother, a sister is always a sister. 

There is the mourning of one’s child… one of the worse.  If young, all the what is missed. Going to school, celebrating holidays, celebrating and cussing daily life,  the graduation (especially if you have relatives who were born at the same time.. or friends children.. who were pals…you watch as they go thru the life you know you won’t get to see… the wedding .. the grandchildren you won’t have by that child.  So much more… you miss that child to your dying day.

And a spouse. Mourning a spouse, some forget what that would be like for themselves…  As they go home to their love ones, they wake up with their love ones, they cuss at their love ones,  they celebrate a part in life with their love ones, go thru the bumps of life with someone watching their back…… but a spouse wakes up alone.. goes to bed alone.. regrets a celebration that their spouse isn’t part of,  To come home from work and have no one to complain or brag about how work went…. The total emptiness of the each day…   Have doubts?  When you get up tomorrow . look and think about the bed being empty next to you… Walk into the bathroom, and then into the kitchen.. the empty kitchen, no one to say good bye, have a good day… and walking into the house after work, vision.. an empty house for the rest of the night.  Maybe you will understand.

 But one of the misconceptions of mourning is from others.   I have seen some, who will question if someone isn’t sad or in mourning because they laughed at something.  Or they find some joy in life, even if it is just for a moment or for the day.  To be frown on, because they found that joy. Or they found that laughter.  What they don’t know, while that person can find joy in life, inside .. while alone, their heart is still tore apart, missing their loved one.  A love that NEVER EVER GOES AWAY, yet.. they find it in their heart and soul to enjoy life…. As God wanted them to.. other wise we would never have a healing heart..

Paying attention in church…

Paying attention in church…

How many start on the right track of listening to the Pastor talking and find yourself zoning off to some other place?  Some even nodding off to sleep…  I wonder as the Pastor looks out across the congregation, does he notice this? And what does he think?  I think I would be tempted to raise my voice louder if I was a Pastor.  Haha.

But this past week, I did good.. the subject, as he went thru them.. were of interest enough for me to write down notes..  And from time to time, I do write down notes. But the only notes that are worse than these, are the ones I write down when I wake in the middle of the night and write down something that might be a good blog subject… and the next morning or sometime in the day and think.. WHAT THE HECK IS THIS? 

But this Sunday, I did a little better..  I listen.. took notes.. and added to them, my thoughts of the subject.

The first was happiness….

Happiness is flowers or music.  Just the sight of the flowers or the sound of a song, raises up ones soul, even in a day of fog and gloom.   Have you ever given flowers to someone just because…. meaning just because of nothing.. Or just because the person is having a rough day?

Happiness is watching or hearing of a good friend doing well.

Some get jealous when they see someone get ahead. Or gets a item of want.   But a good friend, rejoices in the good of that person fortune.. and is very happy FOR them.

Happiness is seeing the joy of a child in small things.. There is something about a child’s face lighting up, as he sees something of surprise and joy.

Next up was a measure of a man.. not by how much money he makes, not by how powerful he is… but of his kindness to others. Be it hold a door for another human being..  Bring out change in his pocket to help a customer in front of him who is short in cash.

Who sits next to a child and listens as the child explains something of importance to that child. As a lot of adults will tell a child.. yes, I see and walk on.. but the man who folds up his legs and sits on the floor, giving the child his full attention…   these are the good measures of a man… (yes women too, but women are more likely to do so, than a man does

WHO AM I?

WHO AM I? 

I have decided to start an essay (for lack of better wording) of who am I…  I have two daughters who over the years have done Ancestory.com.  I get a head ache trying to keep up with all of it.. I go mostly to the direct.. meaning grand parents, great grandparents and etc.. not cousins and far reaching into aunts and uncles.  Just too overwhelming…  the part I found the most interesting was the census over the years because of the information there.. Not only is there the name, ages, and who is in the house hold but gives the occupation.   Because most of the research, does not give that. And I find that one of the most interesting..    So I figured if I were to give that kind of information.. of myself, my husbands and go beyond.. it would be more interesting to the person who looks this up many years later.. that is if the disk that I put it on, is still around.  No, I am not putting it here, as some of it is too personal. I don’t mind my family knowing, but not ready for the nation or the world to know. 

Any way, I figure it is going to be a few days to maybe weeks.. depending on how much I want to write about at a time.  I am also going to start it out with a little back ground on my grandparents so that my kids, grandkids or great grandkids will know more about the background.. not just names and where born and died.  Things I remember about both them, that does not make it on the census or the online searches. 

Have you gave any thought about writing about yourself.. for your family .. sure your kids know about you since you married and had kids, but do they know what kind of small jobs you had as a kid. Do they know what kind of jobs their grandparents (if they passed away a long time ago) or some of the other background.  Those who are lucky to still have their grandparents around can ask. But so often.. we don’t.  Anyway.. that is a project on the side I am going to have going.