Category Archives: Family

Sad News

Molly

We took our sweet Molly to the vet’s office this morning for a sudden nasty place on the side of her mouth. I thought she had been bitten or stung. The vet called, telling me that it looked like cancer, wanting to know what we wanted him to do. We had an honest, blunt discussion. I finally asked him to look at the place carefully, decide if he thought she was ‘fixable,’ and to call us back.

He called back, saying he was 99% sure it was malignant cancer. She is 15 years old, mostly deaf and has cataracts, as well as cysts, lumps, warts all over now. I asked if he thought she might have any good, fun, doggy time left to enjoy. He said, “yes,”  with antibiotics and pain meds to get her back to the best place possible.

We picked her up about 3 pm this afternoon. She is agitating for food, but we can’t feed her until tomorrow morning. We will then add an antibiotic pill and a pain pill for the day.

We knew this was coming, but the suddenness of this is a shock. We will make sure that we make every day we have left count, giving her as much joy as we can in whatever time remains.

(She is resting comfortably at my feet as I type this.) We have been so lucky to share her life.

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Cat Quotes

Nan Porter – Good Housekeeping

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Dog Quotes

Groucho Marx via Country Living Magazine

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Flatulent Fish?

These fish may LOOK innocent, but the two of them are having a contest to see which of them can mess up their water more.  Their water looks pretty good until the week mark arrives and then they redouble their efforts, causing the water to go from merely murky to downright yellow-green overnight.

I have just finished emptying everything out, scrubbing everything, and putting things back together with different decorations.

Maybe they are trying to tell me they want their decorations changed?

If so, it would be MUCH nicer to blow bubbles at me in a pattern, or do body language, rather than making their wants known in such a blatant bid for attention.

 

Their water is now sparkling. The glass beads are squeaky clean and sparkling in the aquarium light. The filter is fresh and all is right with their world, although I DID ignore them just now as they collected in the corner, wriggled their little bodies and blew bubbles at me, clearly indicated they wanted to be fed THREE times today, rather than just morning and evening…

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Virtual Hugs All Around

LLAFP

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Filed under Attitude, Family, Friendship, kindness, quality of life

Privilege of Animals in Your Family

via Jennifer Ann Mitchell Carroll

We have the privilege of having 2 dogs, 2 cats, and 2 gold fish in our family.

 

Smoke

 

Abby

 

Molly

 

Amber

We are, of course, hoping all of our animal friends will last forever.

Molly is 15, though, and is almost totally deaf, has cataracts, and mysterious wart-like things and cysts here and there.  She has many days where she totally enjoys life, however.

An example – today I let her out of the front door. I followed her because I wanted to water the elephant ear plants on the front porch, plus cut off one leaf that needed to be removed. As I walked with the cut leaf across the yard, Molly jumped and danced, wanting to play. What a joy it was to see her bright eyes, laughing face, and sweet little body leaping back and forth and barking at me, thinking the cut-off-leaf was a toy!

We are rich in animals. I can’t imagine my life without at least ONE.

I’ll probably end up being an old lady whose house is FULL to OVERFLOWING with adopted pets…

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A Perfect Evening

Getty Images

We had a beautiful day today. In the hope we would ALSO have a beautiful evening, I thawed a steak we had kept just for an evening like this. I marinated it all day in the fridge, hoping that Mother Nature would be kind.

The weather could not have been more perfect!  The sun went behind some clouds. We had a nice, cool breeze. It was quiet. We had our animals playing around us. My husband enjoyed a beer – a nice gift for him, and I had a cup of coffee sitting in one chair with my feet up on another, totally relaxed, drinking in the gorgeous evening.

We chatted, laughed, and had the best time. As the sky darkened, I plugged in the rope LED lights we have strung around the inside edge of the deck roof so it was festive.

The steaks and salad tasted really nice.

DOUBLY nice because we have rain in the forecast every day, starting tomorrow, through the END of next week.

A reminder to enjoy each day as it comes!

AHHHHH!

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Filed under Family, Mother Nature

Flourishing Fish

My husband and I cleaned out the aquarium this morning, putting in a new decoration after taking everything out, cleaning, replacing the filter, putting in freshly treated water, etc. I didn’t actually scrub the fish, themselves, but I have a feeling they would not look kindly on that.

I got the new decoration at the exclusive emporium of Walmart. The fish seem to like it. They immediately checked it out, swimming around and around it, hoping it was edible.

I don’t really know much about fish, but I have never had any fish grow like these two have. Each was about an inch-and-a-half at most when I bought them. The whiter looking gold fish is about 3 inches long now, or twice as large as it was. The gold fish is at least 4 inches long now, maybe more. I had to get a larger mesh fish scooper because the gold fish would no longer fit in the smaller one.

I have talked to them about the possibility of them learning a trick or two, but so far, all they express interest in is feeding time…

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Chatting With Our Son

I have told you that our son lives and works in Thailand. He LOVES living there. He was in an apartment in Chiang Mai, but decided he wanted to live out away from town, where he could have more privacy, plus create and play music without bothering anyone.  He has recently rented a house about 13 miles outside of town.

He is happily settling in, ordering things and having things delivered – although deliveries are a bit of a challenge because the street he lives on has no name. Luckily, there is a unique place that was converted to a coffee shop down the road, so he can give that as a reference point.

Yesterday he sent this picture –


He took the picture through the screen on one of his windows.   Impressive!

I tell the bug people who come to my home to spray quarterly to spray for everything – including elephants – since we live in the woods. I’m not sure there is a spray that would deter something like this…

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Thoughts on a Wednesday 5-20-2020

source unknown

I have found this to be good advice – smiles are contagious, and they make you AND the recipient feel better.

That said, I just had words with my husband. He was in our home office, working at the computer, so I decided I would use the opportunity to vacuum the 1st floor carpeting. Suddenly, he and Amber, our 95-pound yellow lab,

were in the living room with me. They decided to go out on the back porch, but we had the door open, creating a nice breeze. I was vacuuming and suddenly was hit with 95 pounds of dog flying into me, trying to go after the ball my husband threw for her. I scowled at him, and he grinned sheepishly at me, after helping me up. The SECOND time the dog came flying past me, getting tangled in the cord, I put her out on the porch and shut the door. I finished vacuuming and put the dog bed back down in the living room. I opened the back door to allow husband and dog back into the house. The next thing I knew, the dog was flying for the ball into the front of the living room into her bed, sliding about three feet with the slobbery ball and bed. I then told my husband in no uncertain terms that I had vacuumed in the living room in order not to bother him in the office, and that consideration seemed to be only going one way this morning.  He agreed, grinned again, hugged me, and sat down to read in his chair. (It is now time to look at the picture and suggestion above again.) 

National Geographic

We trapped Raccoon # 3 of the season overnight and so took a trip to relocate him first thing this morning. I have a nice mental picture of him finding the two others we have relocated so far this season and having a happy reunion far enough away that they won’t return to our home. My husband cleaned out the humane trap, had to replace the plastic bowl we use to hold the bait because the raccoon trashed it, and refilled our bird feeders. We have no idea how large the current raccoon family is. We’ll see if we get all the bird seed cleaned out tonight.

We have had two absolutely perfect weather days,

Clipart Library

and I can’t sing high enough praises. I like rain, but it starts to be depressing when you get day after day of cool, gray, rainy weather. I am smiling at the sunshine, trying to encourage Mother Nature to provide more of this.  Since it’s supposed to be nice today, I’m planning to do some weed whacking in the area behind the shop and beside the veggie garden, where my husband can’t use the riding mower. When I get that all cut down, I’ll also spray some weed killer right around the big trash barrels that hold the ingredients of Mel’s Mix for the garden, plus around the propane tank that serves the shop. I’ll take some pics when things are presentable.

I hope that you are safe and well, having a happy day.

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Feisty Fish

My two feisty gold fish have a new lease on life since my husband pitched in and helped me clean the aquarium out today. I usually do this alone, but my husband is feeling sorry for me since I caught my toe on the corner of our bed and am limping around.

Together we can do the whole job from start to finish in half an hour.

The fish don’t complain when the water needs to be changed, and they don’t praise us when the water is squeaky clean, but I KNOW they appreciate having new decorations, as they check everything out thoroughly each time we change the water.

They both got in the corner of the tank, wriggled their bodies and blew bubbles at me until I fed them again – even though I fed them as usual this morning.

Happy, feisty fish are a lot of fun to have in a family.

 

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Two Mollys

This is “Winter Molly.” she is a cocker spaniel/schnauzer cross. She is about 25 pounds and is 15 years old. She has really thick, amazingly long hair for a small dog. I use the defurminator on her all through the winter, trying to keep her from leaving a whole dog’s worth of hair all over the house every day. It’s a full time job trying to keep her reasonable clean, since one of her favorite things is finding or digging a hole in the yard and then sticking her snout in it, all the way up to her eyes.

This is “Spring/Summer/Fall Molly”.  We have her sheared like a sheep, cut short all over.  Our land is wooded, with lots of burrs. She had been already coming in covered nose to tail with small green burrs that I had to comb out, much to her distress. Keeping her hair short allows me to find ticks before they attach, treat her well for any possible fleas, keep her free of burrs, and be able to wash her quickly in the kitchen sink when she has enjoyed another hole.

Our vet/groomer is handling the pandemic aftermath situation well. We drove up in the car, called them to tell them we were there. A lady came out with Molly’s file, confirmed what we were going to do, made sure she had our contact phone numbers, and said they would call when she was ready. When we picked her up, we called from the parking lot again. They brought out a credit card reader and Molly, and we were on our way.

This is a really sweet little doggy, and I love BOTH of my Mollys.

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Invitation

Penny Yaffe Krakow via Helen Medlock Meeks

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My Mom

Betty Wheaton

I’m very grateful to have shared many years with my mom. She gave me a wonderful childhood, freedom to grow up trying new things, encouraging me to be the best person I could be. I always loved her, but – as I grew to adulthood – I learned to admire her more and more.

Her dad didn’t think girls should go to college. She wanted to go to a four-year university, but that wasn’t possible. She earned a full scholarship to Cottey College in Nevada, Missouri, a two-year liberal arts college, where she proceeded to take ALL THE CLASSES for the two year certification, finishing in ONE YEAR everything except a one-hour course for gym that wasn’t offered until the next year.  That was the end of her formal education, but nowhere near the end of her learning.

She was a voracious reader. She built a vocabulary that was stunning. She honed it by working the New York Times Crossword Puzzle every Sunday. She shared her private journal of her favorite poetry with me, and we would read them to each other.  When I, at the age of 4 or 5, sat in the middle of our living room looking at everyone else in the house doing something with books, newspapers, and comics and said, “I wish to HELL I could read,” she stopped the crossword puzzle, ignored my bad language, and proceeded to teach me.

She could stand up and speak at meetings with no preparation, saying what she thought, making persuasive arguments to support her opinions beautifully. I SO admired her ability to do that. She didn’t shake in her shoes, as I would have, but presented her views logically. If someone responded to her in an ugly fashion on a controversial subject, her words grew longer as she got angry. She told people off in a manner so articulate they didn’t know they had been insulted – in fine fashion – until later. She brought that to an art form.

My dad had his own one-man advertising agency in Tulsa, working from our home, doing radio spots for various clients. When his secretary suddenly quit, my mom stepped in, handling calls, radio spot placements and schedules, and typing a written record of the spots he created. She also did the bookkeeping and tax prep for him. On the more personal side, she used her incredible ability as a seamstress to modify every single shirt he wore, every suit jacket, every sweater for him. (One arm was shorter than the other with an almost useless hand due to a fall off a horse when he was 3.)  She did this so quietly that it was years before I realized that not all mothers or wives did this.

I’m lucky to have grown up with love, guided by a role model to try to be the best I can be. I can feel her, from time to time, looking down at me, cheering me on, particularly when I’m doing something outside my comfort zone, trying something new.

Happy Mother’s Day, Mom.  I miss you every day.

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Happy Mother’s Day 2020

Beautiful World

“The phrase “working mother” is redundant.” — Jane Sellman

 

New Animalbook

“An ounce of mother is worth a ton of priest.” — Spanish proverb

 

New Animalbook

“It is not until you become a mother that your judgment slowly turns to compassion and understanding.” – Erma Bombeck

 

R.J. Bennett – LinkedIn

“Motherhood has a very humanizing effect. Everything gets reduced to essentials.” Meryl Streep

 

Journal

“When you are a mother, you are never really alone in your thoughts. A mother always has to think twice, once for herself and once for her child.” ~ Sophia Loren

 

Soul Alchemy

“The moment a child is born, the mother is also born. She never existed before. The woman existed, but the mother, never. A mother is something absolutely new.” ~Rajneesh

HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY!

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Lessons Learned

Yasmin Mogahed via LessonsLearnedInLife.com

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The Best Kind of People

Sarcastic Mama via Linda Orrell

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Fresh Fish

I love watching my fish check out the different decorations I put in their home each time I clean the aquarium.  They don’t say much about the changes, but they wriggle harder and blow lots of bubbles, so I know they are interested.  You can only see the white gold fish in this pic, unless you know that the orange curved ‘stripe’ on the right side of the tank is the orange one. He is about 4 inches long now.  I like seeing the brightly lit tank, the sparkling clean water, the bubbles of the aerator, and the fish chasing each other. I talk to them – making bright conversation – but they don’t engage in spritely repartee.  It’s a nice, quiet, appreciative relationship.

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Pooping Contest

Even though the fish grumbled, my husband helped me clean the aquarium today. I asked for help because I have now changed to a filter for a 10-gallon tank even though ours is a 5-gallon.  The part that hangs the filter system on the tank didn’t want to go on, so I enlisted his expertise.

I only have the two fish you see here. The whiter one has grown to be about two times as large as he was when I bought him about a year or so ago now. The gold one has increased in size at least three, and maybe four times. He’s a monster now.

I didn’t realize when I bought them that gold fish have a well-earned reputation for pooping. I realize that fish need to, but these two wrote the book on it! I guess it’s like being on lockdown. They have nowhere to GO. Not much to DO. No HOBBIES to get involved in. Still, one would think they could devise games to play in there, rather than having pooping contests.

I am cleaning their tank once a week in order to keep the water sparkling clean most of the time. It gets a bit cloudy, and then, suddenly, the water is GREEN and desperately needs to be changed. I have read lots of articles on the subject. I’m following all the suggestions. It’s a good thing that I find these two fish NICE. I enjoy having the aquarium and love the look of it when it’s nice and squeaky clean.

Maybe one day they will listen to my not-so-subtle suggestions and get with the program…

 

 

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Funny Fish

I’m beginning to suspect a conspiracy.

Usually, my fish look a bit ‘put out’ (miffed?)  when I carefully put them back in the aquarium once I’ve cleaned it out, changing everything.  They don’t say anything, just swim around checking everything out.

Yesterday when I put them back in, they went back and forth blowing bubbles and looking at me. I’m beginning to suspect that they are pooping even MORE prolifically than usual because they actually LIKE have new decorations to look at.  I tapped on the glass as they swam back and forth. They stopped, came up to my finger, blew bubbles and then went on their way.

A challenging way to communicate, in my opinion. Maybe I can encourage them to make signs –

  • LIKE this bathtub!
  • More beads, please
  • FEED US!
  • You’re funny looking!

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Thoughts on A Tuesday 4-14-2020

New Animalbook

  • I seem to be UNABLE to stop touching my face!  I’ve tried several things without success. As much as I pull on my nose, I should look like Pinocchio!
  • I am using every excuse in the book (and even inventing some new ones!) to cheat on my diet and exercise.

Fat Animals-Rollin Wild by BMC-Nasim Biswas-2018

Each day I ‘start over’ in my mind, looking forward to exercising and eating right. Maybe TODAY I’ll get going again!

  • My sweet veggie plants and new tomato plants made it through another freeze. As far as I can tell, this is the last time I’ll need to cover everything. I have the first load of sheets in the washer to get all clean and dry for when they are needed again. If the weather warms up (it’s 40 now) I’ll try to get a good start on getting the TEENY, TINY weeds out of my veggie garden today.
  • My goldfish have done their trick of dirtying up their aquarium again, so cleaning that is on the agenda for this morning. Happily, I am able to get everything out, clean the aquarium and put all new stuff in it in about 35 minutes now.
  • I have an idea for a painting rattling around in my head. I’ll try to get up to my art room today to get a start on it.
  • Bacon-wrapped keto chicken is on the menu for tonight. I’ll fix a nice salad – with spinach and lettuce from our garden – to go with it.

I hope you are finding good ways to spend your days as we all hope that we can put the threat of the virus, as well as financial worries from the economy being shut down, in the rear view mirror.

Stay safe and well.

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Thoughts on a Thursday 4-9-2020

David Zinn Art via Penny Yaffe Krakow

Even though I want to bite him in the leg at times, I’m thankful this morning that my husband and I are riding the pandemic out together. Even though I am trying to reach out to the others who mean a lot to me via text, email and phone, REAL HUGS are hugely important to me. So I hug my husband; hug my dogs, Amber and Molly; hug my cats, Smoke and Abby, every day. I don’t hug my 2 gold fish, but we smile at each other.  :0)

I’m even grateful that I work my head off each day, trying to tackle a different part of my house to heal. I’m a slob, and I hate housekeeping, but there is a sense of accomplishment when an area that was a mess gradually becomes an area we can enjoy spending time again.  (We’re looking forward to having our lunch on the screened in back porch today!)

Today’s project is two-fold: 1) weed whacking the areas my husband can’t reach with the mower. We have gone from looking like no one had lived here for several months – with 8-inch-or-so high weeds, to an area that is starting to look not only like someone lives here now, but also like someone cares. My husband was really steamed that he had to mow in March – an affront to fairness in his mind – but he has now mowed twice since then, wanting to feel happy about the yard again.   So I will use the hand-held weed whacker to clean up the edges, the area under the deck, etc. where he can’t reach, and then clean everything up with the leaf blower. 2) The other part of today’s project will be buying and planting tomato plants! (Yeagers Hardware is open and they have plants today.) I will visit my veggie garden and see how things are going.  (Pics later.)

I am hopeful we will get past this awful time and once again we will feel free to HUG our friends without putting them in jeopardy.

I hope you have someone to hug, physically or virtually, today.

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Filed under Family, Gardening, Health Alert, Housekeeping - Maintenance, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds, Thoughts on a ________

A Dog a Day…

I told you that I scrubbed Sweet Molly in the kitchen sink yesterday. She is now clean, but punishing me for the indignities yesterday.

I have ALWAYS admired talented folks who can groom animals. Molly is basically sheared like a sheep. I particularly like that they clean the inside of her ears so nicely, and they can groom her legs and feet. I admire these good folks even more now.

I managed to use the Furminator on her again first thing this morning. Molly seems to be shedding a full ‘dog’s worth’ of hair every day! I worked on her as long as she would allow (collecting a truly impressive amount of long white hair in the trash can)  and then used the scissors to clip the hair out of her eyes some. She has her new expensive flea and tick collar on now.

Until the world gets back to normal, I’ll try to use the Furminator on her every morning, and will endeavor to keep her as clean as possible. Surely there is an end to this…

 

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Washin’ the Dog

“Walkin’ the dog,
Just walkin’ the dog
If you don’t know how to do it,
I’ll show you how to walk the dog.” ~ Rufus Thomas

NOW substitute ‘washin’ for ‘walkin’ and you can sing along with what I’ve been doing for the past couple of hours.

At the Lewis house, we enjoy two-dogs-in-one: Fuzzy Molly that you see above and Sleek Molly, below, after she has been to the groomer.

Molly is truly at her FUZZIEST right now. Add to that the fact that she is NOT a sweet ‘lady’ dog, but a ragamuffin who LOVES to stick her nose in the dirt; bring all manner of stinky things out of the woods and into the front yard; dig up moles, voles, and other oles; and you have an idea of how very dirty she gets. Usually about the middle to the end of March, she starts her once-every-six-weeks or so trips to the groomer. We get her hair cut short all over so that we can save her from the ticks and/or fleas who manage to get on regardless of collars, sprays, and medicines made to help with that. There is also a time of the year that she runs through the grass, coming back to the house COVERED in tiny awful burs from her nose to the tip of her tail. With her hair short, I can use a comb to remove most of them without causing her much grief.

Another adaptation to the virus outbreak is that we can’t take her to the groomers. We’ve had off and on yucky rain for at least a couple of weeks now, and she comes in, dirtier and dirtier, with her hair starting to mat, no matter how many times I brush her.

This morning I spent about 45 minutes with the Furminator tool we got that you use like a brush.

Furminator

It removes a lot of the excess hair without teeing off the dog too badly. I filled up half a trash can (!) with the hair I removed, stopping when her patience ran out.

Then I took her plus three dog towels into the kitchen and lifted her into the kitchen sink. She is quite docile when she’s thoroughly wet, so I scrubbed her as well as I was able with no-tears dog shampoo and spent a LONG time getting her rinsed. She has supe- thick, combination cocker spaniel and schnauzer type hair, so I rinsed her for a good twenty minutes.

It took all three towels to get her to quit dripping enough that I could take her to the back bathroom and use my hair dryer on her for as long as I could before she protested.

She is now lying on the carpet at my feet as I type.  She is still coming over and rubbing herself all over my jeans, trying to dry her face more. When she dries a lot more, I will brush her again and we will add a new flea collar we got for her. (We already put one on Amber, our 95 pound yellow lab.) They are supposed to last up to six months, protecting them from fleas and ticks. We found them when we Googled, “best flea and tick collars.” They had good reviews on Amazon. The brand name is Rolf Club and the collar is called 3D. Fingers crossed the collars are worth the price.

My shirt is wet and has white dog hair all over it, even though I tried to use a sticky roller to clean up some. I did get the kitchen sink cleaned up and the towels are in the washer. I hope I don’t smell like I’ve been, “washin’ the dog” …

 

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Dancing Fish?

 

My fish don’t say much. They don’t do tricks, or make people say, “Awwww!” They are pretty, though, and they are very appreciative when I feed them twice a day. They get in the corner together, blowing bubbles at me and wiggling their sweet little bodies in anticipation.

I wish that gold fish weren’t quite so industrious about making it necessary for me to clean the aquarium. I have now added an ammonia filter to each of the filters in the tank, hoping that that will add to the time between cleanings.

I have to do it – changing out everything in the tank, rinsing the stones, changing the greenery and the decorations, filters, etc. before putting the fish back in – once  week, but it was almost a day later this time. Maybe I can stretch it to 9 days… I do like the water clean and sparkling, though, and though nothing is said, I think the fish enjoy it, too.

 

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How Grandchildren Perceive Their Grandparents

Pinterest

This was sent to me by my good friend, Marsha. I smiled all the way through and just had to share these –

1. I was in the bathroom, putting on my makeup, under the watchful eyes of my young granddaughter, as I’d done many times before. After I applied my lipstick and started to leave, the little one said, “But Grandma, you forgot to kiss the toilet paper good-bye!” I will probably never put lipstick on again without thinking about kissing the toilet paper good-bye….
2. My young grandson called the other day to wish me Happy Birthday. He asked me how old I was, and I told him, 72. My grandson was quiet for a moment, and then he asked, “Did you start at 1?”
3. After putting her grandchildren to bed, a grandmother changed into old slacks and a droopy blouse and proceeded to wash her hair. As she heard the children getting more and more rambunctious, her patience grew thin. Finally, she threw a towel around her head and stormed into their room, putting them back to bed with stern warnings. As she left the room, she heard the three-year-old say with a trembling voice, “Who was THAT?”
4. A grandmother was telling her little granddaughter what her own childhood was like. “We used to skate outside on a pond. I had a swing made from a tire; it hung from a tree in our front yard. We rode our pony. We picked wild raspberries in the woods.” The little girl was wide-eyed, taking this all in. At last she said, “I sure wish I’d gotten to know you sooner!”
5. My grandson was visiting one day when he asked, “Grandma, do you know how you and God are alike?” I mentally polished my halo and I said, “No, how are we alike?” “You’re both old,” he replied.
6. A little girl was diligently pounding away on her grandfather’s word processor. She told him she was writing a story.
“What’s it about?” he asked.
“I don’t know,” she replied. “I can’t read.”
7. I didn’t know if my granddaughter had learned her colors yet, so I decided to test her. I would point out something and ask what color it was. She would tell me and was always correct. It was fun for me, so I continued. At last, she headed for the door, saying, “Grandma, I really think you should try to figure out some of these colors yourself!”
8. When my grandson Billy and I entered our vacation cabin, we kept the lights off until we were inside to keep from attracting pesky insects. Still, a few fireflies followed us in. Noticing them before I did, Billy whispered, “It’s no use Grandpa. Now the mosquitoes are coming after us with flashlights.”
9. When my grandson asked me how old I was, I teasingly replied, “I’m not sure.” “Look in your underwear, Grandpa,” he advised “Mine says I’m 4 to 6.” (WOW! I really like this one — it says I’m only ’38’!)
10. A second grader came home from school and said to her grandmother, “Grandma, guess what? We learned how to make babies today.” The grandmother, more than a little surprised, tried to keep her cool. “That’s interesting.” she said. “How do you make babies?” “It’s simple,” replied the girl. “You just change ‘y’ to ‘i’ and add ‘es’.”
11. Children’s Logic: “Give me a sentence about a public servant,” said a teacher. The small boy wrote: “The fireman came down the ladder pregnant.” The teacher took the lad aside to correct him. “Don’t you know what pregnant means?” she asked. “Sure,” said the young boy confidently. ‘It means carrying a child.”
12. A grandfather was delivering his grandchildren to their home one day when a fire truck zoomed past. Sitting in the front seat of the fire truck was a Dalmatian dog. The children started discussing the dog’s duties.
“They use him to keep crowds back,” said one child.
“No,” said another. “He’s just for good luck.”
A third child brought the argument to a close. “They use the dogs,” she said firmly, “to find the fire hydrants.”
13. A 6-year-old was asked where his grandma lived. “Oh,” he said, “she lives at the airport, and whenever we want her, we just go get her. Then, when we’re done having her visit, we take her back to the airport.”
14. Grandpa is the smartest man on earth! He teaches me good things, but I don’t get to see him enough to get as smart as him!
15. My Grandparents are funny, when they bend over, you hear gas leaks and they blame their dog.

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Sparkling Fish

Yesterday my husband and I cleaned out the aquarium. My husband actually worked with me, rather than getting impatient and DUMPING stuff, with me struggling to catch it. We ended up with a sparkling aquarium with fish who may be smiling at the nice clean water or may be griping to each other that they were rousted, once again, while the humans made them swim in a small bowl of water with a towel over it – AGAIN.

 

I have ordered a thing that is supposed to help with ammonia now, since the other additions I’ve tried are helping, but no making it so I don’t have to clean the whole aquarium once a week. I’m hoping I end up with a combination that results in definitely smiling fish.

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Filed under Amazing Animals, Family, Housekeeping - Maintenance

Happy Goldfish?

“Here’s lookin’ at YOU, kid.”

My fish don’t say much. They don’t do tricks. I need to clean their aquarium out once a week, even with the two filters I’m running now.  But they DO gather in the corner when they see me coming, wriggling their little bodies and blowing bubbles at me, hoping I’ll drop flakes in their tank.

I lost one recently. :O(   He had the balance problem I read about. I was sad to lose him, but I’ve learned a lesson that will help the other two – not to sprinkle the flakes on the surface of the water. An article I read said to put the flakes in some water from the tank and saturate them completely before adding the water and food to the tank. This is supposed to avoid the development of the balance problem due to gulping in air along with the flakes.

 

I’ve cleaned out the tank so much now that it is almost down to a science. I can empty it, change out or clean everything, and have the fish back swimming in about half an hour.

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Filed under Family, Housekeeping - Maintenance

Wonderful Marathon Birthday Celebration

Cartoons by Ron Leishman

When you are my age, the more celebration the better.  (I will be 73 on Monday, March 9th.)

My friends at Lunch Bunch made me feel really special yesterday and I’m still grinning.

When we walked into the Pizza Barn, this was one of the things on the table –

I put them in the center of our dining table so that my husband and I can enjoy them together. The first thing he said at breakfast this morning was, “These are lovely.”

Spring-Scented candle and holder.  I wish you could smell this!

Ceramic OWL candle or tealight holder. This has a peach and mango candle. Delicious!

Kitchen towels with attitude!

And beautiful birthday cards.

TWO pieces of chocolate sheet cake with chocolate frosting.

My lunch was free.

Conversation, laughter, and hugs from long-time friends. (we have been meeting every Friday for Lunch Bunch for almost 19 years now – a true gift.)

My husband and I indulged in hot dogs with BUNS and Fritos last night for dinner – I haven’t had those – or the cake – in over a year now.

And Monday my husband is taking me for a lobster tail lunch at Red Lobster – a celebration of another year of life, PLUS having over 1400 subscribers to my blog now.

“I’ve enjoyed every age I’ve been and each has had its own individual merit. Every laugh line, every scar, is a badge I wear to show I’ve been present, the inner rings of my personal tree trunk that I display proudly for all to see. Nowadays, I don’t want a “perfect” face and body; I want to wear the life I’ve lived.” — Pat Benatar

 

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Filed under Acting Like a Grownup, aging, Are YOU also older than Dirt?, Cause for Celebration, Delightful Surprises, Family, Friendship, Great Companies Who Deserve Your Business, kindness, quality of life

Thoughts on a Thursday 3-5-2020

Judge Lynn Toler via TinyBuddha.com  via Desiree Angelique Hackett

I’m having trouble getting much done today.

My husband came into our office this morning and told me he was going to watch “Joker” – and asked if I wanted to see it. I changed my plans and we watched it.  When it was over, I felt exhausted. It is a really powerful movie. I can certainly see why Joaquin Phoenix won the Oscar for Best Actor. He created an unforgettable character.  I won’t say I ‘enjoyed’ the movie. The character was too strong and there was too much violence for me. I’m glad we saw it.

There are three actors in particular that my husband and I discussed once we finished the movie. We consider them absolutely superlative actors. I’m speaking of Philip Seymour Hoffman, Daniel Day-Lewis and Joaquin Phoenix. I would also include some others, but their names don’t come to mind right now. We are in awe of their talent, but many times won’t watch their performances because we don’t like their choices of films or characters.  I hope my explanation makes sense.

After the movie, it was time for lunch. Then we got caught up in the news with the important breaking news events.

I have just now finished listing my newest earrings on ArtFire and Etsy, and the day is almost gone for regular working purposes.  I want to thank those who reached out and gave me their feedback on the new layered earrings. I have more ideas swirling around in my brain now that won’t quit until I can make time to get up to my art room again.

When I took Molly out this morning, I thought we had a turtle in the front yard – one of those with a shell like a metal helmet. As we got closer, the ‘helmet’ moved. I saw it was a large field rat. UGH. I steered Molly away from the area to do her business while our ‘Hunter Cat Smoke’ decided a delightful game of ‘Cat & Mouse’ would be fun. I just hope she leaves him and his parts out in the woods, rather than bringing assorted parts to the welcome mat in our garage.

I hope that YOU have all YOUR ducks in a row today. If not, we’ll just punt…

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Filed under Book - Movie - TV Reviews, Family, Thoughts on a ________

Personalities

pinterest

My husband has lived with me for over 50 years now.  He describes me as, “Mean as a snake.”

 

Grunge

As he has lived with me so long, he probably has a point. I hope, though, that if I AM as mean as a snake, I’m pretty like this one. :0)

AND on our last anniversary in June, he DID ask me to spend ANOTHER 50 years with him. I guess he really LIKES snakes….

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Filed under Family, love