Sweet Saturday

How sweet it is to see the sun again after so much rain. Many people are talking about cabin fever this time of the year.
I will agree that it has been rather gloomy at times this winter yet I like so many others have that situation all year. I never thought about if people got out or had to stay in as it was not something I had any experience with before. Well now I do and it is sad to know that people don't care to see you in public or about run you over if you have the nerve to go into a store and get in their way. I always respected and offered to help if I saw a disabled person struggling to reach something from a shelf. When I am out and about using my rolling walker I venture into the local WalMart and see many people darting in and out of disabled people's way. I have seen someone reach right over and push a little older lady out of their way because they were in a hurry after working all day. Saying something in the older lady's defense merited an abrupt "it's not like you people do anything you have all the time in the world to shop." Don't you know my blood boiled at that remark. I had to respond with my own, "it's people like her that worked so hard and made it easier for people like you to have a job today. And don't think that you will be the exception to the rule and won't be in her shoes one day because your turn will be here before you know it. I hope you think about today when someone pushes you because they are in a hurry and don't have time for people like us when that day arrives." I just had to run my mouth didn't I? I can't stand seeing people being mean to disabled people. I was raised with manners and principles along with standards and you respect elderly people. My theory has always been that they have worked to make our country what it is today albeit their tax dollars have been misused along the way by government officials. They have suffered much more than we have to make ends meet and survive in the world. I do get hot under the collar when I see someone mistreating the elderly people today.

It is time for me to get off that train and onto another. This time I headed north to the Whiteface Mountain area. My son lives near there and has been sending me some of the most beautiful pictures he has taken of the scenery. It almost makes me want to be there in it. If I knew how to add a picture on here I would share some awesome pictures of God's creation I have ever seen for something so cold. He lives in a little cabin among the majestic mountains of the adirondacks. His woodpile for one week is much bigger than anything I ever used to stay warm. It was only one degree before it was even winter. I don't know the below zero temp yet to share. Poor Two Spots has to wear a coat to even go outside to use the bathroom. Such a sweet dog too. I must remember to give him the recipe for snow icecream as he was six the last time he had it. He's close to forty now. I hope there is a way I can make it to see him up there this summer.

My oldest daughter has confirmation of staying at her current school to teach next year. Thank you Lord! Sometimes teaching can be a thankless job and I truly admire all the teachers out there that have given so much of themselves to try and make something out of societys children when the parents don't care to teach them the things that they should be teaching at home. The world is full of self absorbed people and I feel sorry for them. True happiness is found in what is seen as the little things in life. I have always thought that life is what we make it. We shouldn't depend on someone else to do the work for us. Although the class my daughter has requires a lot of extra care, she has it to give. I am thankful for her husband who supports her in her role as a teacher and helps as he can with the extras. Some people are definately made in the mold of a teacher and I have seen some that are teachers that aren't. I thank God for the teachers that truly care to teach children.

My middle daughter finally has her cake making hobby going. She has a knack for decorating cakes and just hearing a little about the person the cake is for can impliment it into making it something they are stunned to see when it's picked up. She and my youngest daughter came to my rescue the night before my oldest daughter's wedding and helped me finish the cakes by staying up working til 3:00 a.m.the day of the wedding. We were so punch happy one would thing we who don't drink alcolhol were drunk as Scooter Brown. Oh I wish I knew how to upload pics on here. They are in the computer but I just don't know how to do it by myself. This daughter showed me how to add pics to my facebook but I haven't had the lesson for here yet. I think that pictures help so much when reading about something. The proverbial picture is worth a thousand words saying fits here. On to the youngest grandchild which is her son. He has been playing with his hands and just talks lol baby talk to his GMaw. There is a bond with the grands that sometimes they do things for grandparents before they do for parents. She and her husband have While you wait publications and I am the luckiest person come the first week of the month to get to spend time with the baby while they take care of distribution. Her daughter wants me to make her a dress for her birthday in June and keeps asking me where her dress is like the other grandaughters. I have to disapoint her every time and tell her it isn't time to make it yet. It makes me feel like a big meanie too.

My youngest daughter and her husband just redid their den. I must say it is impressive and yes you can make a mobile home look like a house. Their triple wide is so nice and how they are turning it into a modern looking home is awesome. The color scheme in the den is browns. I have had an aversion to that color most of my life. I now have a different opinion to go along with their different look. My daughter removed those tacky strips that join two pieces on the walls and put drywall compound in their place, let it dry, then sanded it. She then put up paintable wallpaper that resembles venetian plaster. When she finished painting it and put everything back in the room I was shocked at the transformation. Yeah Color Splash on HGTV. Thats what gave my daughter the incinitive to take on the task. She watched his shows and got some good ideas. Saved themselves a bundle too. The economy is bringing out the best in a lot of people with imposed limitations on their spending. They only spent under $700. and it looks more like $7,000. She likes the Tuscan look and has the grape theme in her kitchen of the den and the blend is so nice. I thought she might replace the grape arbor hanging from the ceiling in the kitchen but not ready to let it go yet. I made it in 2001 for my home and she wanted it when I lost everything after the accident so she plans on keeping it a while longer.

I am thankful that I am able to write today as it has been a difficult couple of weeks for me. I may not be able to write every day so I think I will commit to every week at least for now. If I am up to writing more I will. I so want to do pictures so I can demonstrate some of my crafts. I think it is so good to share what we know for the younger folks so they can have their lives and homes enriched with the things they make themselves. We can show what we know to help them with the economy as it is and them wanting to have nice homes too. Sharing and caring is what is of help right now and I am thankful we are a nation who cares enough to share. One little thing at a time if that's all we can do will eventually become something big one day. I am so delighted when I can tell someone that compliments something that was shared on a blog that that's where the idea came from. We are so lucky to be able to communicate this way. There was a time as I was growing up we didn't have a phone. We communicated by hollering and the nearest neighbors a fourth a mile away would be able to hear us. I think of how dirt poor we were then and how rich I am now by those standards. I am so very blessed that my life has came down the path it has to a world of richness. I am thankful for the teachings as a child that has me appreciating even the small things in life. They truly are life's richest blessings.
I wish everyone a sweet day tomorrow with their sweethearts whoever/whatever they may be. As for me I don't think of myself being alone as I have family and friends who love me and memories of those no longer here to comfort me.
Until next time I leave you with Just This... Alice

Tricky Thursday

Someone is playing a trick on me I think because I had made the statement I would not go on a retreat if I came down with a cold. I didn't want the babies attending to catch anything from me. Well during the night I woke with a stuffy nose and was breathing through my mouth instead of my nose to reap the benefits of my oxygen machine. OK so now I have to remain home and honor my word. There is a reason for all things and I receive the message in faith for the purpose not known. I just feel like crud is all. When my sister died 2 days after Thanksgiving, I got sick from the rain during her funeral and it lasted through Christmas and into the new year. i had a blissful 2 weeks of being able to breath through my nose like a normal person. And now this. I guess going out in public has it's risks but a girl has gotta do what a girl has to do to survive. Here we go with the Nettie pot and steam for the sinus again.
Yesterday i went to WalMart to get groceries and had a very difficult time pushing the buggy as well as my rolling walker. It takes me forty forever to get anything done and when I got to the check out i was sitting on the walker seat and felt an arm being placed around my shoulder. Even though it startled me for a moment i was so grateful when I looked up and saw my daughter standing there. She had went to get some medicine for her daughter who had come down with a cold. Bless her heart she called her husband and told him that she had run into me and was going to help me finish as I was looked beat. She loaded all the stuff on the counter and then into the buggy. After checking out she pushed the buggy out to my tracker and loaded it up for me. After a big hug and kiss on the cheek she told me "I love you mom, be careful and have Aunt A. take the stuff in for you." A. is my older sister that lives with me with her own disabilities. I am so blessed to have God send her to me in my hour of need. I could only praise God from whom all blessings flow for that intervention. As I sat there in the parking lot with tears streaming down my cheeks I felt the blessings of having some wonderful children who truly love their mother. Taking motherhood serious and making them your life after a divorce when they are small has its rewards as we grow older. I am so thankful for the blessings I now receive from making that decision so many years ago. Thank you God for the gift of my children.
Today I am resting and not doing much at all. It will all be there for me tomorrow to take care of.
Life has its ups and downs and we must travel with it in order to survive. No one ever said it was going to be easy only worth it when we see the end results of living with a purpose. We must all find our own purpose and embrace it with understanding that we can obtain happiness in the small things.
I so enjoy reading other peoples blogs and there are some very good ones out there. I thank all you who I follow as I receive so much enjoyment from reading your posts. You all touch my life in special ways and I am grateful to have the luxury of a computer in order to find enjoyment in the little things in life as this.
Best Wishes to all.
Until next time I remain, Just This... Alice

Motovating Monday

Motivation..... I have tried so many things to get myself motivated today to do something besides moving from one spot to the next. The weather does some not very nice things to my body and today has been one of those days. To those who read my blog, I apologize for not having anything to read for the past few days. There will be times that I won't be able to update as I'd like to due to health problems.
For tonight I will talk about something from the past.

When I was 4 years old, I stood on a wooden box to hand tobacco to the older girl that strung it on a tobacco stick. Then it would spend time hanging in the tobacco barn to cure which is drying it out in about a week using kerosene to fuel the heaters. Next it was removed from the sticks and put in burlap sheets and tied up in bundles then stored in the pack house until the warehouses opened for auctions. I didn't earn any money doing that as it was working for my dad on our farm. However when I was 6 years old I worked outside the farm and earned $4.00 a day handing tobacco without having to stand on a box. At the end of the summer when it was time to attend the tobacco auction, we all loaded up and the mule was hitched to the wagon and pulled us all into town. The warehouses were on the northwest end of town and when I walked through the big double doors,I saw the most cured tobacco I had ever seen in my life. Mama stayed outside with the 2 youngest ones. I sat on one of the bundles of our tobacco as told to do and watched tobacco bundles move from one place to another as it was graded and sold. Men walked along and the auctioneer called out as the men raised their hands when interested in buying the lot of tobacco for that price from each farmer. They approached out lot and I didn't know what to do so I just sat right there and smiled as sweet as I could at them. The auctioneer said you sure are a pretty little thing. Then he reached into one of the bundles and grabbed a handful and held it up for inspection. He told the buyers that what was in his hand was some of the best looking tobacco he had seen all year. My father returned from doing the paper work and stood watching the price went all the way up to $1.10 a pound for his lot of tobacco that year. Well I got scolded for remaining on the bundle of tobacco during the sale but not too much cause I had stayed where I was told to stay til he got back. The 4 older ones were standing around watching the activity and not me. We then headed over to the stores to buy school clothes. Mama had the money in her pocket book that we had made during the summer. We each had an allotted amount to spend for clothes and that was 5 outfits for school, a dress for church on Sunday, 1 pack of bloomers and 2 pair of shoes, (1 pair for school and 1 pair for church). We wore our old shoes around the house to work in or none at all. For our reward of being good, we stopped at Howlands and got a brown bag of penny candy for 5 cents and an ice cream cone for the ride home. We were in hog heaven riding in that wagon headed home with all out new clothes and such. The rest of the money left over went for essentials not grown on the farm to help us survive through the winter. The year was 1958.
I'm sorry but I have to lie down. So til next time it's Just This.... Alice