Mother's Day!!!

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!!
To all the mothers out there that celebrate Mother's Day today, I wish you a wonderful, relaxing day with your children.  To my children, I love you dearly and am so proud I am your mother.  To my daughters and daughter-in-law, I love that you are all wonderful mothers of your own.  And to my own mother...I love you and miss you so much.

Mom, at my son's wedding in 2007



Because of my mother (and my dad...he helped...smiling) there are 3 families growing and thriving and reproducing into future generations...well, maybe reproducing sounds a little weird...but you get the picture.  With grandkids and great grandkids and great-greats, there are over 30 of us now living our lives and trying our best to be the best we can be because of my mom (and dad :).  

I know I learned much from my mother.  I've tried to pass on what she did so well, and have learned from what she struggled with.  I can only hope that I'm passing on the good things to my children and grandchildren and maybe they're learning from what I struggle with. 

Mothers' aren't perfect and since there's no guide for us to follow, we just have to hope we are doing it right.  And if we make a mistake, we just try to correct it the next time.  Maybe we don't get it right all the time, but we sure don't lack in trying.

And just because the kids move out, get married and have families of their own, you never stop being a mother.  My kids still come to me for advice or an ear to listen or even a shoulder to cry on.  They still want to share their accomplishments with me and, I think, still look for my approval...which they have 100% of.

So for today, cherish your mothers, or the memory of your mothers as I'm doing, and strive to be the best mother you can be to your own children.  And again, HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

Catch Me by Lisa Gardner - I really, really enjoyed this story.   A young woman believes she will be killed on January 21st at 8pm and she wants Detective D. D. Warren to be the investigating officer.  One of her best friends was killed 2 years ago on this date and her other best friend was killed last year on this date.  Now it's her turn.  The twists and turns in this novel are more than enough to keep the pages turning.  And a very satisfying and unexpected climax made me sorry it was almost over.  I like the way Gardner writes and have read a number of her books...and this one is right up there at the top. 

Quotes of the Day:

A mother is a person who seeing there are only four pieces of pie for five people, promptly announces she never did care for pie. ~ Tenneva Jordan

Sweater, n.: garment worn by child when its mother is feeling chilly. ~ Ambrose Bierce

Mothers hold their children's hands for a short while, but their hearts forever. ~ Unknown

Why Flashbacks?

Flashbacks:
I had a flashback yesterday.  And it was quite a vivid one.   It's really strange how flashbacks work.  You can be doing something totally mundane when something happens that takes your mind instantly back to a previous incident...and in graphic detail. 

Someone pulled out in front of me and I had to slam on my breaks to avoid hitting him.  This is something that happens occasionally and my response is usually to say a few choice words (in the privacy of my car...tee hee) and continue on.  But for some reason, yesterday was different. 

I was immediately taken back to over 15 years ago when I almost killed a boy.  I was driving past our local high school and doing the required 20mph when I saw a young girl and boy horsing around on the side of the road.  It was lunch time and we have open lunches so they were on their way back to school.  Just as I was coming up beside them, she shoved him into the street...right in front of my car.  I hit my brakes and literally stopped on a dime.  Everything on my front seat flew to the floor and the car behind me rear-ended me.  My car was almost touching him and the look on his face was something I'll never forget.

As much as I hate to admit it, adrenelin took over and I was out of the car in seconds and came unglued with the young teenager girl.  I must have ranted for 10 minutes about what a stupid thing that was to do and how I could have killed him and what was she thinking.  She never said a word.  She took it all.  And then I cried...and told her why this was so extremely upsetting to me....

A few years before this incident, one of my foster sons (grown at the time) was driving a city dump truck and hauling 10 ton of stone to a road construction site.  He was in a 25mph zone and doing the speed limit.  An 8 year old girl had been taunting traffic for a couple hours, riding her bike into the street and forcing drivers to stop.  She thought she was being funny (she was unsupervised...her parents in a local bar) and the neighbors kept trying to tell her how dangerous it was.  She rode out in front of my son and with 10 ton of stone, he couldn't stop on a dime.  He ran over her and she was killed.  He has had to live with that pain ever since.

The young teenage girl in my case was disiplined by the school with detention and her father's insurance had to pay for the damage to the two cars because the police determined the accident was her fault.  But I'll bet my ranting and crying and recounting of my son's story affected her a lot more than detention or anything her father may have had to say. 

So why do flashbacks happen?  I have no answer to that but I did find an explanation as to what they are.  "Flashbacks are normal.  Vietnam vets have normalized this experience and have coined the term post traumatic stress syndrome. Even the diagnostic category book for psychiatry defines post traumatic stress syndrome as the normal experience of all people experiencing an event that is outside the range of normal human experience." by Laurieann Chutis, A.C.S.W.

And all because someone pulled out in front of me.  
 
And now to something less depressing.....

Shock Wave:
I've just finished reading John Sanford's newest novel "Shock Wave". I really enjoyed reading this, but then I enjoy the Virgil Flowers series. There's action, suspense, twists and turns and just when you think you've figured out who did it and how, the author adds another twist that takes you completely off the path you were on. I love this type of story! But then I'm a really big fan of authors that write in this genre.

Authors like Sandord, James Patterson, Harlan Coben...aww, just give me a good story with a lot of suspense and I'm happy for hours. But every now and then, I like to throw in a Danielle Steel for a more relaxing read.

But there are certain books that aren't in either of these genre's, that when I read them, I remember them for years. Two that come to mind are The Notebook and The Help. Excellent reads.

The only question I have of John Sanford...where in the world did you come up with a name like Virgil Flowers?

Next Post:
I promise next time there will be some space for my foster kids and grandkids.

Random Quotes of the Day:
“Good friends, good books and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life.” ~  Mark Twain

“Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

"A friend is someone who will bail you out of jail.  A best friend is the one sitting next to you saying "boy was that fun." ~ The Maugles

 

Remember When?

A Difficult Transition:
I did something today I haven't done for over a year and a half.  And it was a really hard thing for me to do.
I bought tickets to watch a local play. 
What's so hard about that, you ask?  Well, let me explain...
Our small city (40,000 people) has a playhouse that puts on fantastic plays several times a year.  It's a refurbished old church and provides hours of entertainment for the citizens of my small town.  The actors are all local talent and quite good at what they do.  My sister, Kathy, talked me into going to my first play years ago and I've enjoyed quite a few of them since.
But the thing is, we had a little ritual, a little family tradition.  My mom, my sister and I would go out to eat together, have a few laughs, and then it was on to the play. A few months later...dinner out...and a new play.
Then a couple years ago my Mom's health started deteriorating.  And finally one night she told us she didn't want to go.  So while someone stayed with her, my sister and I went together...out to eat...and to the play.  It wasn't the same but we had a good time and I truly believed Mom would go to the next one.  I'm a disgusting optimist.
A year ago last November, my Mom passed away.  I haven't been to a play since. 

But...I'm going to try it again.  My youngest daughter, Amy, is going with me.  My sister is helping behind the scenes with costume changes and says it's going to be a good one.  The play is supposed to be an emotional one, so if I cry, I can blame it on the play. 
So...on Friday, February 17th, maybe, just maybe, we can start a new family tradition.
I love you, Mom, and miss you terribly.

Remember When...
Earlier this week I got an email from a friend of mine, Karen Lynne, that brought back a lot of memories.  I'd like to share some of those memories and wonder how many of you will be taken back too.  Or maybe, how many of you will roll your eyes cause you can't believe we used to live like this.
15 of my memories:
1 - We had our milk delivered to our door by a man in a wagon pulled by a horse. 
2 - Our bread was delivered to our door too, but it was a regular box truck.
3 - Our television was a black and white box...until I was in high school and we got our first color TV.
4 - We got 2 channels on the TV and they went off the air at midnight after playing the national anthem and came back on at 6am with the local farm report.
5 - Our telephone was on a party line so when you picked up the phone to make a call, you might hear someone else talking.  You had to hang up and wait till they were done.
6 - When you could get an open line, a woman would say "Number please" and we would give an operator the phone number we wanted to call. 
7 - There wasn't any area codes then or zip codes either.
8 - Our first fast food restaurant was a Frisch's Big Boy when I was in junior high.
9 - I ate my first pizza when I was in high school and we had two pizza places to choose from.  One is still around today...a small town favorite.
10 - When I was in grade school, Mom would move the washing machine into the kitchen and hook it up to the sink to wash the clothes.  Then she had to put them through an attached wringer and turn the crank to squeeze the water out of them before hanging them on the line to dry.
11 - We had candy cigarettes that we thought made us look cool, at least until we ate them.
12 - We didn't have steam irons.  What we had was a hot iron and a bottle with a cap on it that had holes in it.  It was filled with water and was shaken on the clothes before they were ironed to produce the steam.
13 - I learned to type in high school on a manual typewriter. You really had to push down hard on the keys to make them work. 
14 - But before I graduated, we were introduced to electric typewriters.  My first attempt at this...with the super sensitive keys, looked something like thhhhiiiiiisssss.  We learned to press easy on the keys.
15 - In high school, we would drag race from one stop light to the next till they came out with a "rapid acceleration" law.  I was pretty good and won my share of races.  :)

And that's just a few of my memories.  The 50's and 60's were such a good time to live in.  It seemed so easy back then compared to now. 

Preview:
In my next post, I want to add another recipe.  This one is another favorite of my kids that I think you'll like too.  It's also one I can cut down to feed just me for a couple days.
I also want to give an update on my manuscript...the one that's finished and looking for a home.

50's & 60' Quotes of the Day:

"When I first started driving, who would have thought gas would someday cost 50 cents a gallon. Guess we'd be better off leaving the car in the garage."

"If cigarettes keep going up in price, I'm going to quit.  A quarter a pack is ridiculous."

"It's too bad things are so tough nowadays. I see where a few married women are having to work to make ends meet."

"When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace. " Jimi Hendrix