Life takes me along

I have been so very busy that I find I have been away from the blog for almost a complete month. I needed to stop in and type up some words.

Some days I feel like this....
A stick in a stream being pulled along and trying desperately to avoid the rapids and rocks.

I thought of this example in the car one day when I was being the usual family taxi service, a responsibility I seem to be sentenced to for now. Don't get me wrong, I want to transport my children to the places they need to be and also want them to do some fun things too. I just feel like I am always last on the list of priorities.

I am my (now adult) special needs daughter's transportation when she cannot utilize the county's para-transport system bus. I hope to someday find a reliable person to take my place in this, if not all the time at least some of the time. It is a real tie down to my schedule and life. Please don't think I do not absolutely love her. Any parent of a special needs child knows what I mean.
Transportation is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to responsibilities of managing her day to day life. It all takes dedication of a lot of time to run an organized life of a special needs child, no matter their age or stage of life.

Lots of my so called friends have proved to be "fair weather friends" and have decided they just can't understand what it is like to be in my shoes. I don't ask that. I just ask for them to listen, as I listen to their joys as well as challenges and sorrows with their own children and their own lives too.


Lots has been going on in my own life and in our house too.
I have gone on strike (again) with some household duties--I am only one person, after all-- but most of them seem to be un-noticed anyway.
We have had to do a major home improvement project- not by voluntary choice, I may add, and the timing is pretty bad.
I have been without my job since July 31st, since my boss suddenly died.
I have been without my uncle since he died. He was my boss.
I cared for him 5-7 days per week in his home for 5 years, also including being his driver and companion for all his transportation needs, and doing all his shopping runs by myself, alone.
I will tell you this: It is hard to have a relative as an employer too.
My only other uncle died just 5 weeks after my boss uncle.
I spent some treasured quality time with him in his last few weeks.
I miss them both so much more than I had ever expected.

Now that the frost is covering the neighborhood each morning, I realize that I did not even have time to use my clothesline this summer. Now it's time to stack the firewood closer to the house. The clothesline will be there next summer, waiting.

I find I am not such a fun person these days. I think of all the creative thoughts I had and things I did.
I will get back to all that some day soon.
Just not now.
Life is taking me for a ride down that stream, at a very fast clip.

Flash Back-simple memories

Now that Summer is getting closer to its end and changing looks, grass grows more slowly and the crickets and cicadas are being extra noisy especially at night, I find myself being reminiscent of times when I was a young girl.

--getting on the bus the first day back to school, deciding where to sit
--new stiff shoes, maybe with a (grown-up feeling) 1/2 inch heel
--the smell of a new box of crayons
--weekend slumber parties with friends, playing board games until way past a normal bedtime
--doodling in spiral notebooks using lots of different colored pens or markers, while listening to the radio
--flowered cotton pajamas, sweet smelling from the laundry line
--playing outside using imagination for hours, without a care in the world
-- lying on the floor next to the sleeping cat in the patch of sun shining through the window, wondering how she makes that purr sound

Memories are such a strong therapy when grown-up-ness gets too hard.

be sure to have a well lit clothesline area at night....

I love the smell of laundry dried on the line...

The other day, after doing a long stretch of many loads of laundry in between my phone "ringing off the hook", as the saying goes, I remembered that I still had one more load still out on the line. It was now after dark.
I was tired and ready for the comfort of my pajamas and a few chapters read in my current library book.
I surrendered to the fact that the maid wasn't going to go out and pull the stuff off the line since she has never done that in my whole lifetime. (As a matter of fact she is quite invisible!!)
Out I went in my bare feet to retrieve the laundry from the clothesline. I was just taking the last few items down and tossing them into my laundry basket when under my foot something went squisssssshhhhhhhh. Yuck. Double YUCK!

back on the line

My new clotheslines are out under the tall pines and have been nice enough to hold my loads of laundry loads to sway in the hot summer breezes and save me some dollars on the electric bill. Well not really. I am spending the money on the central air conditioning instead, so either way the electric company still gets it. At least my laundry smells sweetly dried in the 100 degree heat index heat of northernmost Ohio.

Forecast calls for a whole solid week ahead of weather in the 90's and horrible seemingly-Ohio-rain forest-humidity!!

Now go ahead and call me crazy, but I actually enjoy hanging wash on the line. But this week I will hang the laundry a little faster to get back inside and enjoy the air conditioning!

On the line...

{ some ephemera from my collection. Please play nice and use for just your own personal efforts. Not to sell.}

Well the sun is going to be shining after 3 days of rain....so out on the line will go loads and loads of washing at my place today! I like to line dry my laundry when I can, but now it will be a money saver on the electric bill for the clothes dryer too. Saving money is always good. Especially after my shock of the repair man's news yesterday for the refrigerator/freezer. A few dollars short of $300! Yep! It seems these new appliances have computers in them. Darn that computer technology!! We recently had a power surge in the neighborhood and it fried the computer board that controls the temperature and shut off cycling. Who knew? A computer inside my appliance!? I am always the last one in on this stuff! After talking to my neighbors I found they also had things (all different items) that were fried in the surge too.

So we will now have a surge protector on our appliances. The repair man showed me the bad techie appliance part. Yikes! Burned up! He said he is always repairing brand new appliances...hardly ever old ones-the old ones run and run with stamina-NO computers!!

So today I have just two MORE WORDS for you...

SURGE PROTECTOR!

the last 2 days...

Are you watching that dancing show with the stars?

This season I predicted-all the way back on the first night- that the hot Frenchman would win...and maybe he will! (?) What do ya think?

I never danced ballroom, but I sure do like to watch when people do it. A few times I've watched competitions they have on public television. I was a dancer from age 3 and continued on until age 29 when I was pregnant with my oldest daughter. Gosh I miss it and very often think about how fun it was! Maybe someday in another lifetime I can again be a dancer. I danced tap, ballet, jazz, modern expression, chorus line, and... just silly fun dancing to classic rock and roll music and 80's pop.

Don't you love the episode of Seinfeld when Elaine dances??!! 
Too funny, no matter how many times I see it.

I had a great Mother's day. I awoke to find cards waiting by my alarm clock and then I was presented a yummy breakfast. My kids made the cards for me and proudly presented them to me. A. picked flowers from the garden and put them in one of my milk glass vases. She commented that they matched the colors on the cards. I really did TRY not to do any Motherly chores but I couldn't help it. I do them without even thinking. So....I did a load of laundry and E. put it out on the line to dry in the nice breezes. I baked some cookies-oatmeal- and sent some over to N's Godmother and then I took some down to my best friend parents who live around the corner. They are like my second parents since they have known me since age 5. For dinner we ate corned beef, potatoes, carrots and cabbage and some dinner rolls too-Yummy! I worked in the gardens a little bit and planted some morning glory and moon flower seeds to climb up the fence along the driveway.

the mending pile

The other night I felt strangely inspired to do mending. I used to sit at my sewing machine every day when I had my sewing business. I made my own wedding dress and maids' dresses. I made E. and A's baptism gowns. I even made E's First Communion dress and veil and A's First Communion dress and veil, too. But when it comes to quick simple mending, I sometimes procrastinate-- a lot. It is just so much more fun and I can easily and enthusiastically lose myself in a project that involves creating an item from idea to finish. Mending doesn't always have the same inspiration attached to just plow through it. People who know me often tease when a button needs sewn on that they need to find a woman that can sew!!
I made it through the pile of mending as one after another I seemed to begin, do and FINISH the task. Maybe it was like an out of body experience??! My kids were thrilled to have their favorite things back and fixed. E's friend had even added her favorite pajama pants to the repair pile mix! Imagine? I have adopted mending items too!
As I went deeper and deeper into the pile and found just how long I had procrastinated I asked my 16 year old if she minded if I didn't mend her favorite pants from kindergarten!!

freshly laundered

Wow! I love this retro looking fabric!!

The coral pinkish color background, the aprons. Don't we all do our laundry in heels?!

I know, I'm weird, I do think the vintage housekeeper images are fun. I'm a laundry geek!! I love to iron too. What a vintage housekeeper throwback I am, right? It is relaxing for me to iron, not to mention the great smell of fresh linens and the instant before and after gratification it provides to me.

On The Line

It's the time of year when I commence hanging my never-ending loads of laundry on the line. With wash loads for 5 ( 3 of them being very active, outdoorsy kids) it sure keeps a lump of money from the local electric company's pocket.
I like to think that money is better spent to buy fun ice cream cones with lots of colored sprinkles during the warm months!!!

My kids LOVE to go to our local coney dog and ice cream shop and get jr. sized cones to take to the park nearby. There is a lady working at "T____o's" who makes the best ice cream cones for my N. She uses little sugar candy eyes and lips and uses sprinkles for hair!! It always brings a giggle!!!

Besides, I like to pretend (if only in my twisted little mind) that I am like June Cleaver or Donna Reed... out hanging the wash in my high heels, full skirted-cinch waist dress, and string of pearls!
And when I walk back into the spotlessly clean house there are my sparkly groomed children sitting around the table [genuinely interested in discussing each others' day at school] while munching on cookies I have only just pulled from the oven (chocolate chips still gooey) with milk.
OOPS!... I must have just blacked out or something...