Behind the Times

I have no idea what happened to me. An entire month of the New Year is gone. Tomorrow is February, it's unbelievable.

Christmas was low key but nice this year. A little quieter than usual with less family coming home. Being on vacation for 11 days was wonderful. This time I didn't have a big to do list, I just rolled with it and did a lot of relaxing.

It's been cold here, foggy, rainy, quite a variety of weather in the last month - reminder it's January in Seattle. What do I expect.
There have been numerous times I have sat down to write on my blog. But I have excuses, like I get sucked into Pinterest, the computer is too slow and it takes forever to type something, Facebook pulls me in, I'm too tired, I don't know what to write.The list goes on but I think you get the picture.

However I have enjoyed keeping up with blogs that I read. There are some amazing writers out there. One of my favorite blogs is Nothing But Bonfires. Holly please write a book, we are waiting for you to write a book. Read this. And now I have the song The Roof is on Fire stuck in my head, because I Zumba, I know that song!

I'm going to go see what kind of photos I might have taken recently and post a couple. With this winter weather and darkness I haven't been out taking pictures. I look forward to better weather (or a really good snow storm) so I can take more pictures.

 Here is my favorite Christmas picture with Wally and me.

Missy - she'll be 14 this year.

I made this adventurous cake.

The inside is supposed to look like an ornament.

12-12-12

December 12, 2012, or 12-12-12, will be the last date of its kind (a day when all three numericals in a date are the same) for the next 88 years. The next time this will happen is on January 1, 2101, or 01-01-01.

The number 12 has great significance in many cultures. In western tradition, it is commonly associated with completeness and seen as a perfect and harmonious unit. As such, it has found its way into religion (e.g. the 12 apostles), mythology (e.g. the 12 gods of Olympus), and everyday life (e.g. 12 hours on a modern clock face) a dozen donuts.

 
The number 12 has interesting mathematical properties as well. There are few small numbers that can be evenly divided by so many subsets.

And if this works for me this blog will be stamped 12-12-12 12:12 p.m.

(I don't plan on being around for 2101 and I'm okay with that.)

December 2012

Oh how I love the lights at Christmas time.There is definitely a lot more work to do in the month of December. The tree is up, the house is decorated and the decoration boxes are even put away in the garage. Now it's on to more shopping, wrapping and shipping. And then the baking and candy making.

December is such a special time of the year. And just last night we got a new addition to our family. This is my great niece baby Elsie. She is named after my mother who was born in 1922. I have now heard of two other little Elsie's recently. It's just so sweet and certainly makes me remember my mother.

Welcome to the world Elsie Norah Madson 12-9-12

Christmas is such an emotional time of the year. It's the memories, the lights, the traditions, the music, the gifts, the loved ones no longer with us, the new ones joining us, it all just comes together this time of year. 

Christmas is like a warm embrace, a friendly reminder at the end of the year. A reminder that lets us know we are thought of and loved and remembered. And that a new start, a fresh year is just around the corner.

IGNITE

I have had this word stuck in my head for a few days. Ignite, ignition.

ignite  (ɪɡˈnaɪt)

—    Vb

1.      to catch fire or set fire to; burn or cause to burn

2.      ( tr ) chem  to heat strongly

3.      ( tr ) to stimulate or provoke: the case has ignited a nationwide debate

[C17: from Latin ignīre  to set alight, from ignis  fire]

It started when I was cleaning off my desk at home. I seem to accumulate books, magazines and pieces of paper. I was thinking of taking a bunch of my diet books and giving them away. I am that person that buys the latest diet book, the newest fad, the one book that will save me from ever buying another diet book again. And how did that work for me you ask? I'm skipping that question.

That got me thinking about all those books I have collected over the years. Here are a few things I have learned:

1. I skim read diet books, I do not ever read the entire book, they make them too big.
2. They say the same thing in different ways, eat less, move more. I know that, I get it that.
3. You buy one book, you've seen them all.
4. It's really easy to read about it, to learn it, but I haven't figured out how to get myself to actually DO IT for more than about 3 days.

And that is when I started thinking of the word ignite. I know what to do, I know exactly how to do it, I just can't seem to ignite. My ignition key is stuck.

What is it that makes a person want something bad enough that they will change their eating habits? And if you are not willing to change your eating habits does that mean, you don't want it bad enough? 

I talk mostly about eating habits because I am a regular exerciser. I love to go to the gym, I wish I had more time to spend at the gym. But I also like sweets and carbs and all that white processed stuff I'm not supposed to eat.

I know that if I could get my ignition working I could retrain myself to eat healthier food. It would make a big difference in my life.

I'm almost there, I'm thinking about it. And I'm stoking the fire and eventually it will IGNITE!
 

O is for Orange and October

I feel the need to apologize up front by saying that my Halloween decorations remind me of my friends. I mean that in a good way, not a scary witchy way. The cute little bear in the witches hat was painted many years ago in a class at Kent Commons. In that same class was a lady named Valerie and we worked in the same office building and showed up in the same painting class. I still can't believe I ever painted like that. But step by step instruction really helped.

 Ah, the Beanie Babies. It was probably back in the 1990's when my coworker Lynda and I did the mad dash on our lunch hour to hit a couple of stores in search of the most recently released Beanie Baby. We were so proud of our finds and rationalized what we were going to do with them. But hey, these are holiday ones, that's good. Now as for the other 287 packed in totes in the garage.....

These cute little wood painted pumpkins were done by my friend Yvonne. They were a Super Saturday craft that I never had time to finish. And the pumpkins were my first cutting project on my little band-saw that my husband set me up with.

Love, love, love this wood birdhouse. We call it a birdhouse because of it's shape. I have a different holiday hanger to put on each month, some months I have a choice. It was a Super Saturday project and took a couple of years to complete all the months. Once again Yvonne coordinated this. See that little orange painted light bulb? I'm not 100% sure, only 92% sure that my friend 

These are all good memories and good associations. Happy October!

Dusting the Dust Ruffle

It's been a very nice October weekend. I've been doing some "spring" cleaning. I'm a procrastinator, what can I say?

Here are some things I learned while cleaning this weekend:

• Dust ruffles collect dust they don't ruffle dust and they must be washed
• Dust ruffles can easily be removed out from under the mattress by one person, but are nearly impossible to put back on with just one person (and balancing a mattress on your head (while wearing a red headscarf) while stretching your arms out underneath it to pull the dust ruffle across, may not be the best idea)
• Learned the meaning of data plan versus Wi-Fi on my cell phone, while streaming part of a conference session live. Thank you AT&T for texting me the count down as to when I would max out 100% of my monthly data plan (took me three messages from them to figure out what it meant and realize my Wi-Fi was turned off and has probably been turned off for days)
• It really is fun to wear random things you find while cleaning, such as, if you find a large red head scarf it should be worn while finishing the dusting
• One can never own too many pairs of shoes
• If I alternate my shoes in the shoe rack one more pair will fit on each shelf
• When you find a book you bought in 1997 titled "The 5 Day Miracle Diet", chances are it did not work then and will not work now (that said, you know I'm going to look at it anyway)
• Reflexology sandals bought years ago at the State Fair are still fun to own, but must be vacuumed to remove the dust from in between the beads
• Rereading a wonderful letter kept for a few years, from a friend thanking me for helping her with something made me feel really happy and I was able to also let the letter go
• Was reminded that unplugging alarm clocks is not a good idea, dust around the cord (my clock is all set and my alarm is set, however my clock now thinks I live in the Eastern time zone and sometime when I least expect it, it will automatically reset the time three hours ahead)
• As you are rearranging your shoes and your husband asks if you need a garbage bag a simple no thank you is the most appropriate response

This is How I Roll

Tomorrow is October 1st. Wow, next thing you know people will start talking about Christmas. The other morning on my way to work I stopped at Walgreen's to stock up on candy for the office. The cashier asked me if I was stocking up for Halloween!

Who buys Halloween candy in September and then puts it away for 5 weeks and still has unopened bags by October 31st? Certainly not me.

I can't tell you how much candy corn I have eaten in the last three weeks. I may be cured of candy corn by now. Except it's really, really good tossed into Chex mix.

The weather is slowly shifting, it's darker way earlier in the evenings, the school buses are out in the mornings as I drive to work. You can just feel the change from summer to fall. It's a beautiful time of year.

I don't want to actually say this out loud, but lately I have kind of missed having rain. It's been a really long time since we've had any real amount of rain. I'm grateful for the beautiful fall days we are having. I know the rain will come soon enough and then I shall miss the sunshine.

I'm working on a notebook to get my life organized. I'm working on it slowly. Right now it's a small spiral notebook which I have started writing in to categorize things I want to work on, new habits I need to acquire. And just all around new attitudes about the things I'm involved in and what I want to be doing. Once I have enough drafted I'll take it to the computer and then the pages will end up in a notebook which I will carry around and plan to review on a regular basis.

The summer just seemed to be a big whirlwind and for awhile I felt out of control of so many things. I need to regroup and this is my way of doing it. There are so many things I want to make the time to do and I know I have to make a conscientious effort to do them.

I need to do more menu planning, time management so I have time to be doing the things I want to do and not just fall asleep in the evenings watching TV.

September is my birthday month and as such I've always considered it my New Year. Change is in the air and I'm going to be a part of it. Basic self improvement, that's the direction I'm headed.

Here's a fall picture from another year. We aren't quite up to this color of leaves just yet.

Just Another Day

Here is a video of Gisele and I hula hooping, at least that is what we tried to pull off.

My Mother

Today is my Mother's birthday. She was born on August 31, 1922. That was 90 years ago. She passed away in 2004. August has been an emotional month. It's also my Father's birthday and their wedding anniversary.

And tomorrow I celebrate my birthday. I've spent a lot of time thinking about my parents lately. Sometimes I think it would be fun to write down all the things I would converse with them if they were still around. Everyday, ordinary things.

Things like, "hey Mom I finally found a chocolate chip cookie recipe that turns out for me, it's so good I made them three times in one week", she would understand that. And "I think you'd really love coconut shrimp", it wasn't around back then. And, "hey look at this beautiful orchid that I got to bloom". She would smile at all those things and say something witty and complementing. That's just how she was.

To add to the emotions of the month I have a close friend who is watching her daughter lose her battle with cancer. A daughter who is close in age to my own daughter. The divine beauty of their mother daughter relationship as they go through this last shared mortal experience has been amazing to me. And I am grateful for the privilege of being a part of it.

How do you say good bye to a parent, and how do you say good bye to your child? How do you look at your grand children and explain to them that their mother isn't going to be there next month when they get home from school.

How do you capture today, these real moments in time? The shared experiences, the joy, the pain. How do you mentally record every single minute, each conversation, every smile? Somehow you just do.

In the 1970s a play was written called My Turn on Earth. I was in college and saw the stage play in Utah. The lyrics were so powerful many of them have stayed with me all these years.

One of the songs is titled Forever. The play and music was written by Lex De Azevedo and Carol Lynn Pearson.

Forever

Some dreams must wait,

Life isn't long enough

Some dreams must wait to come true

Sometimes it seems

Life just begins and then

All of a sudden it's through

There's songs you won't sing

There's stories that you won't ever hear

Pages you'll never turn
Words that you'll never know

Things that you never will learn

Some dreams must wait

Life isn't long enough

Some dreams must wait to come true

It's nice to know there's all eternity

For everything you'd like to do
There aren't any clocks

There aren't any things like calendars

No such thing as too late

Just always and evermore

That's why I think it's so great

That Heavenly Father and Mother

Figured it out so clever

There's never enough time

And that is why I'm

Glad that we go on forever

We go on forever.

I have some other friends that have family members battling cancer at this time. I sit on the sidelines, right now I'm merely an observer and I marvel at how people cope. I watch and I learn from them.

My heart, my love and my prayers goes out to them all. I truly do understand life and death, I don't question why, but I also feel the earthly pain of it.

And tomorrow, well tomorrow is my birthday. It's my day for celebrating my life. I will spend the day at a wedding with my husband and his family. And we shall have joy.

For all things in my life I am truly grateful. My birthday is always like my very own New Year's Day. Happy New Year!

Evening Primrose

These beautiful flowers bloom in the evening.

Video

Remembering Dad

When my Dad was 43 years old I was born. I've always known my Dad with balding gray hair and a mustache. Sometimes he added a beard. He was a loving patient man, inventive, liked jokes, loved to sing in his Barbershop chorus, and took college classes in his 70's.

He grew up in Manti, Utah and worked on a turkey farm. He went to college, served in the military, raised us five kids. He and Mom had 20 great years of retirement living. They spent time in Yuma, St. George, Boise and Island Park and they served two church missions.

I have lots of good childhood memories of doing things with Dad. One of them I was thinking about recently, funny how memories are triggered by smells, sights and sounds. When I was in grade school and Jr. High I used to go to the Boise auction with him.

He would go by himself early on Saturday morning and scope out the auction and estimate what time things he was intererested in might be up for auction. (And I'm also guessing this was his quiet time away from work and us kids.)

Then he would come home and a couple of hours later I would go with him and we would walk the aisles, smell the onions as they cooked hamburgers, and I got to watch the bidding. To this day I still love auctions.

Dad passed away June 7, 1998, just weeks before Father's Day. I miss him and I'm grateful for the memories I have and the special times I shared with him growing up and as an adult.


My wedding to Wally in January 1988, (Dad 73).