And then.....

I love blogging.
When I first started, it was kind of a rant blog.
Just between me and my brain during a dark era of my life.
No published posts, just a place to vent and try to put words to the things that made no sense to me.
Like trying to sift the stars out of the darkness to see if I could bring a speck of light to my messy life.
And then....
I deleted everything.
Every word.
I knew I had to stop writing about it because it would never make sense.
It was killing me.
That dark era will forever be a shadow monster that follows me around and growls to let me know it's real, but by deleting all the verbage I spewed, I can't look it in the face and relive the fear.
And then....
I got chickens.
Dadgummitt people, if you've never had chickens, you are missing out.
They are so much fun.
They are also a lot of work and a fragile link in the Mother Nature chain and soon became the focus my next blog.
It was really the beginning of my public blogging and my posts were less than eloquent.
But I enjoyed sharing their feathery escapades and my ignorance.
And then.......
The chickens were killed.
In broad daylight.
With my 2 dogs outside in the sun, oblivious to a cunning predator lurking in their yard!
It was devastating and the end of my blogging career.
And then......
My youngest daughter tells the family she's pregnant.
I'm going to be a grandmother!
It was exciting and new!
Especially for someone who was not supposed to be able to have any kids at all.
I'm now responsible for 2 generations of new humans.
Which also means I'm much older than I care to admit.
(but it's better than the only other alternative)
I can blog about both events, seeing as how they are happening at the same time.
Grandparenting and growing older.
New Blog!
And then....
A decision was made in my brain, that, like the cartoons I watch to destress, unwind and laugh with that I should get hit by a falling anvil while chasing a roadrunner.
Just kidding, the decision was for my blog to be the cartoon of my blog kingdom.
Life with laughter.
Stories with silliness.
Maybe it's my age and the preponderance of so many things unknown and unprovable that I can't seem to take anything, or at least very little, seriously.
My blog is a verbal cartoon of my world.
My hope is that you will chuckle with me now and then as we get through this life.
As my profile says..."I know I can do it if I'm laughing".


Thanks for being here.



Watermelon Vacillation....

Books.....

Books are very important to my family.
So much so that there are only very rare occasions when someone in the family is without a book of some kind.
We read them, listen to them, talk about them, pre-order them, share them, compare the books to the movie, read them again and rarely part with the good ones.
A good book salvaged at a thrift store is a major find to us.
The lively hood of this family even centers around a book.
We all love books and want our family's new addition to share this book joy.
So this happened....


Jeplen reads with Grandpa.


Eva wants to join in on the Story Time.


Baxter arrives late but loves a good story.

There you have it.
Toooo cute.
Another peak into my strange and marvelous world.
That book was read approximately 7 or 10 times in one sitting.
You are actually reading an online quasi-book right now!
There are all kinds of books.
Heart.

Thanks for being here.

Meow-Meow and Mongo

I am pretty sure that I have mentioned my 2 loving dogs in this blog, but I never went into much detail about them.
Someday I will.
They deserve it.
But today is not that day.
Today I will be mentioning my 2 cats.
In my opinion these cats haven't really merited an entire blog post mention but thats definitely not their opinion, just mine, so please don't tell them I said that or they will bite me in the night when I try to rearrange the covers.
Don't get me wrong, they are pretty good cats and very sweet.
But they also are needy and licky and sneaky and full of wet expendable hair that apparently needs to be on display for everyone, like Fine Art for your floors.
This artwork is sometimes on display in the foyer, in the middle of the dining room... the laundry room...next to the dog dish...the computer table...the coat closet.....whoa, that's enough.
You get the idea.
I now present, in fairy tale/tail mode, a brief version of their story:

Both cats are about 4 years into their reign over the kingdom I live in.
One rules over our castle(home) and the other rules over the enchanted forest(yard) surrounding the castle.
They were both abandoned in this kingdom while under an evil spell(they were sickly) cast by nasty trolls(the previous owners) within 2 weeks of each other.
We took them in, fed and groomed them for their royal duties and then quickly took them to the Mighty Wizard(the Vet) who helped heal them of their various afflictions.
Knowing that they would now live and reside in our kingdom, we named them.
The first kitten we called Meow-Meow, which translates in this kingdom to: "she who meows a lot and loudly".
Since she was the first to arrive, she chose the castle to rule from and immediately crowned herself 'The lovely Queen Meow-Meow of the Castle'.
She performs her self appointed royal duties by daily meowing, biting, grooming, knocking items off the counter tops that do not meet her approval, snuggling, coughing up her royal hair balls, taunting the jesters(our dogs), all while taking her daily regal strolls through the mighty halls of the castle.


Queen Meow-Meow Looking Lovely for her Kingdom


Queen Meow-Meow in her favorite castle window


Queen Meow-Meow wordlessly telling her subjects to bugger off

The second cat we call Mongo.
Yes it is sad name, but she was a sad abandoned kitten.
She was left outside the castle walls at 4 weeks of age in horrible condition with eye ooze, fleas, worms and a very tiny, malnourished, royal body.
When the Mighty Wizard (the vet) and the Royal Castle Doctor/Maid (me) finally healed her, she crowned herself, 'The lovely Queen Mongo of the Enchanted Forest'.
She loves ruling her kingdom, but because Mother Nature and Queen Mongo do such a good job together, we really don't know what she does in a royal day besides just hanging out on the patio ruling all she surveys or resting on a deck railing where she can be high off the ground and warm.
She does sleep in the castle every night because the enchanted forest at night can be very scary to a tiny Queen who's Royal Guards(our dogs again as Queen Mongo sees them) also sleep inside the castle.
This queen has trust issues, so she is rarely seen by any royal subjects and never by strangers.
She developed these issues after living with those horrible trolls during her youth, so no one may approach her except the Royal Castle Doctor/Maid (me again) and Queen Meow-Meow
Some subjects even make wishes on a rare Queen Mongo sighting.


Queen Mongo looking lovely in the Spring


Queen Mongo in royal stealth mode.


Queen Mongo being regal in the garden

So those are my cats.
Their story is true.
This fairy tale made from their story is silly.
But as a servant of this kingdom, I have been assigned the duty of sharing their story.
Maybe they do deserve a blog post, the cute little, purring, fuzzballs!
Heart.

Thank-you for being here.

To See or Not to See.

When I turned 40 a kind of switch got flipped in my body that signaled my eyes to stop focusing.
It occured while I was sewing and in one day I just couldn't thread the needle any more.
I had to squint and stretch out my arms and turn on all the lights.
I had been sewing every day during that time so it was quite shocking to me!
The 'switch' was really more of a dimmer switch though, wayward human functions that altered me slowly and a little at a time, with my eyes being the first things affected.
The rest of the body however, had been put on notice for future bodily experiences only mentioned in the scary stories told around nursing home campfires on dark, moonless nights.
Understanding the need for eyewear though has been apparent to me since I was a young child.
My dear sister had several operations for her eyes when she was very, very young and from then on she needed glasses to see the world clearly.
So for her, a shocking transition would be to NOT wear glasses.
I can't begin to imagine...
But when I couldn't focus to do my sewing and was told I needed 'readers', it was shocking to me.
I needfully bought lots of cheap glasses so that every room in the house had a pair for me and then got back on with my life.
Through the years my lens magnification strength number continually went up and up and UP, until I now have become an official, over the counter, maximum strength, eyeglass wearer, with my doctors promise that the next level is a prescription, including..... dare I say it....bifocals!
Shrug....Smirk.
Sounds nuts to react with only a shrug and smirk, but this is the 21st century and the bifocals nowadays are NOT your grandfathers bifocals, so I'm good and there are not enough days left on my calendar of life to be fretting about glasses.
Besides, I don't need them yet.
I'm still reading, sewing, cooking and blogging in my OTC 'readers'.
But when I go out to eat I, mostly, don't wear them.
I use them to look at the menu but take them off to eat cause they slide down my nose and I can't see the folks across the table with them on.
So no glasses means I can't see my food either.
I could be eating delicately seasoned and shredded used paper towels with a side of leftovers from the previous patron and I'd never see it well enough to send it back...and request delicately seasoned, julienned used paper towels .


Food With Eye Glasses Off

Yet, there are times when I DO want to see what I'm eating.
It is often so beautiful and delicious looking that I must gaze at it like a work of art.
I can see the spices, the fresh herbs and the little grains of salt I just added.
The meal becomes a different kind of experience.
Its mystical and divine somehow.
Sort of a 'someone turned up the dimmer switch' event.
So I'm good with eyewear .
Anykind.
And I'm good with appreciating good cooking.
Anykind.


Food With Eye Glasses On

Thanks for being here.

P.S. It was Eggplant Parmesan and it was fabulous!

P.S.S. Remember that Twilight Zone where all the guy wanted to do was read and his wife wouldn't let him and while he was at his job at the bank he goes into the vault and falls asleep and while he's in there the end of the world happens and he's not sad, he's excited because now he can read all he wants, any time he wants, but while he's lovingly looking at books his glasses fall off and as he is looking around for them he steps on them and breaks them and now he CAN"T read anything?!? Remember that episode?!? Boy, I sure do. Glasses are important people! But you knew that.

Going...Going....Gray !

Going gray with your hair is a hard thing to do.
It means admitting that you are not young anymore...to yourself AND to the rest of the world with eyesight.
But there is also a point in your life when there is no more camouflaging or disquising parts of your body to create the illusion of youth, because it is all moving south daily as if to get a head start on picking out your burial plot....soooo gray hair is the least of your worries.
When the decision was made to go gray, I had still been living in my 'youth' fantasy by retaining my 'youthful' blonde hair with highlights.
My hairdresser, Michelle, is fabulous with color and had done great job in the past of keeping my hair in its 20's, but it was time to let Nature do what Nature does.
So when I decided to go gray last year, see Gray Grandma post, and had to stop the blonde and grow out the gray, I had no regrets AT ALL.... except for those tell-tale blonde highlighted ends.
Bleeecchhh.


Gray Roots or Blonde Ends?

So I went back to Michelle, who is gorgeous and has fabulous blonde hair of her own, and let her 'cover up' the remnants of my youth.
I mean who does that?
We don't 'cover up' our young-ness, most of us cling to it like dog hair on a sweater.


Fabulous Michelle

So Michelle gave me low-lights and blended my gray hair effortlessly.
She has a gift.


Lowlights in Gray Hair.

No more blonde ends.
Or at least not nearly as many.
Keeping it long and gray is where I am right now and I love it.
Hope this post is helpful for those of you trying to decide when and how to come over to
the 'Gray Side'.
It's a blast over here!

Thanks for reading my blog!


P.S. Below is a pic of the process, in case you're curious...you know the time during your hair appointment when you can pick up a really good WiFi signal, maybe a cable channel or at least have protection from aliens reading your mind.


Lowlights and Alien Protection.