Friends...

An old song that I learned in the Girl Scouts about a hundred years ago says:

"Make new friends, but keep the old
One is silver, and the other's gold."

I have always believed it to be so. I've never like losing track of old friends, especially dear ones, but sometimes others just don't hold up their end of communications, so it's often hard to stay updated.

Since I'm a people-person, I enjoy meeting and making new friends,as well. I've met some wonderful people, face to face, and many on-line ones too, who share similar interests.  But today, I'm going to focus on old friends.

Facebook and other networking sites are good for reconnecting. It's been my pleasure to be a part of the Facebook world for awhile now. It keeps me updated on my kids lives, as things happen, as well as affording me the ability to chat with some that I grew up with, went to school with, or otherwise have known in  the past. We've re-established friendships across the wires and have shared memories and current life events. We've visited with some and invited them to visit us in our home.  It's great fun!

This morning we met a guy and his wife for breakfast. We've tried four other times in the last two years to have this reunion, and one couple or the other had to cancel for one or another reasons.  Finally, we tried again...and were successful.  Ron and I last saw each other about 25 years ago.  Since then, we've both remarried, moved to new states and retired from our jobs.  Going back more than 40 years ago, we were teenaged sweethearts...eventually marrying others and having families. I've never been sorry that we didn't end up together, but always wanted us to stay friends, which we did, however lax we were in communicating.  Anyway...it was terrific meeting his wife...and catching up on things in each others' lives. 

I hope that it is the beginning of a more frequent stream of conversation, and perhaps visits. We live ten hours from each other, but still, with the blessing of internet and telephones, there's no reason why we shouldn't keep up with each other in the future.

So...go ahead, make your new friends...but keep those old ones close...in heart, and mind.

Diverted...

Allllllllllllllrighty then...I won't make the apple pie and cookies I'd planned to make today. I can't very well bake without an oven, can I?  The element burned out in the oven the other night. We got through the weekend, though...and will order a new element today.

I've got so much to do, I think my head is spinning with ideas.  Some have time limits, so those should be taken care of first, I suppose, even if my attentions are diverted by things I'd rather do. As my granddaughter sings every now and then, "You can't always get what you wa-aant". True.

So...where shall I start on the many time limited chores?  I have trouble looking at things in small pictures. If I have a mess to clean up, I know the thing to do is to start in one spot, and keep going until the full job is done, but I have a problem doing that. I look at the whole pile of stuff, for instance, and see how much there is to put away, and am prone to walk off and do something else.  I wonder if I'm ADD undiagnosed.   Naaaah...I can focus...I just prefer not to do those jobs that require a lot of time, I guess.

Ok...now that I've let another secret about me out of the bag, I'm going to divert my attentions from this computer to the pile of stuff I've collected on the coffee and end tables.  Time to neaten this place up...and then....I'll start one of the time-limited chores. 

Toodles!

Determination

Every day I hope I can get those shutters painted. Every day something stops me. Again yesterday, it was the weather. Before I got outside after posting my blog entry, the weather turned very breezy,squashing my hopes one more time.  It's not that important, in the grand scheme of things, but it is a job that I'd like to get done. I guess it'll still be there....whenever the planets align or God shows favor at the same time that 92 other things don't  shout my name.

I guess it's true about me....I am determined child. I was told that more than once when I was little...and once I got an idea into my head, it was hard to dissuade me from it.  I can think of one instance, when I was quite little. I don't know where the thought came from, but I really thought that when I grew up, I'd be a man. No amount of talking to me helped, my mind would not be changed from that idea.  I cannot tell you when I realized that  I was wrong about becoming a man, but the light dawned some time or another.

Stubbornness seems to run in our family. My brother is about as determined as anyone can be to be right. He will argue the point until the listener gives up trying, or he gives up and goes off in a huff, but he won't change his mind.  My Mom has a saying, "Never say 'never'. Recently she's adopted another one, "I Won't Give Up."  Determination... it can be a good thing, or a not so good thing.

So....I'll spend this sunny, perfect painting day riding in the car to a new area in order to find a restaurant where we'll be meeting an old friend and his wife on Tuesday. My mind has not waivered from the task at hand....but those shutters will be waiting for me when I can get them done.  I'm determined.

Today Is Mine...

My shutters have been sanded for weeks....and waiting for their new coat of paint. First there was a windy week, where I couldn't paint, for fear that the color would dry between the can of paint and the shutter. Yes...I'm going for 'rustic', but not streaks made by a stiff brush!

Then we had a rainy week...and finally I had a very busy week of running around and setting up Mom's new computer. (Oh yes...that was a challenge!  I still haven't figured out why the printer will not install, but I will.  I'm nearly as determined a woman as my Mom is. She is determined that she will overcome all these new changes they've made to computers, AOL, etc. since she bought her last 'toy' five or so years ago. Of course, that will mean multiple phone calls and visits from me to instruct and remind, but in the end...it's all good. It will keep Mom busy with something when there's no one around to keep her company. At the very least, she'll be able to play her Free Cell games until help arrives for other things.
The 21" screen and the fact that you can push control and plus keys to enlarge internet pages, is a great change for her....and a huge help to anyone with vision problems. So, she's off on a new adventure!)

Today is a perfect day for painting. The weather is glorious, and will be 77 deg by 4pm. The paint will go on smoothly and dry quickly.  Today is dedicated to this endeavor, and so I bid you a fond adieu, and will see you when I next see you!  I hope your day goes just as you plan for it to! Enjoy it!

This Week...

Monday....Took Mom to the radiology office for a bone density scan. She has some osteoporosis, so they do these scans every couple of years or so.

Tuesday....Took Mom to the hospital for a nuclear stress test. When she'd gone for a check up to her family doctor, he listened to her heart with the stethoscope, and he heard her heart skip a beat. (No, not because she's in love with him!) He did an immediate EKG and then determined that she should have a stress test. Thinking that, because she is 85 years old and walks with a cane, she could not withstand a tread mill, he ordered the injection type of test.  I've got news for Dr. S.  Mom could have out-done me, for sure, on that tread mill, but he is a careful doctor, and not one to take chances, so injection-type it was.  It took all morning, and she wasn't terribly pleased about the whole business. When she came out to the waiting room, she firmly reported that she was 'never going to do that again! She was also wearing a Holter monitor which she'd have to wear for the next 24 hours.

Wednesday...Took Mom back to the cardiology unit at the hospital for removal of the monitor. She was glad to get that off and the electrodes and wires that were attached from it to her body.  We were instructed to make a follow up appointment with the doctor. We left the hospital and went to Best Buy to peruse the computer section. Mom's old one quit, and she wants to buy a new one. I'm a bit concerned that she won't be able to operate the updated programs, as she doesn't see well and they can be confusing enough for someone who has perfect vision. I'd hate for her to spend all that money, and not be able to use it. But, she likes to play her games, and can do so little else, I'm careful not to say anything very discouraging. Anyway, she's determined.

Thursday.... I balanced Mom's checkbook (I almost never do my own!)  Then I wrote out her checks for her to sign and addressed envelopes for her. I also made numerous phone calls for her to get work done on two houses.

Friday...today we will go and pick up the new computer, which she has decided is the answer to her long, boring days. It seems to me to be a rather pricey toy, if it will be used mostly for puzzles and card games....but it's not my money, and not my long, boring days.

Not often, but sometimes I feel as if I'm living my Mom's life, rather than my own. When I realize how selfish that sounds/is, I erase the thought!  After all, she can't help it if all of her hobbies and interests have been stolen by poor eye-sight and failing hearing. She can't help it if she's a widow or that can't drive herself hither and yon, and she can't help it that age is causing more and more doctors and appointments.  She can't help the fact that she needs some aid in doing things, like balancing checkbooks and writing envelopes.  God gave this wonderful Mom to me, and she was always there for me and my family, to help in any way she could: babysitting, offering a listening ear or a word of wisdom, even giving a short term loan at times.

I'd so much rather have her with us than not to have her. I'd prefer to help her as much as I can, rather than have her in a nursing home, or even to hire an aide to come to the house. She doesn't need all that much care and we all hope that she never will. She just needs a few hours, sometimes every single day of the week, but that's ok with me. So many other elderly people need so much more requiring their children to be there around the clock. Mom has decided many times over that she will NOT live with us, but will do 'something else' if it comes to that. She's welcome, but she wants to live independently as much as she's able.  I do wish, however, that we could find a person to clean her house. With my bad hip and back, I don't do real well on my feet that long, and my own house suffers because of that. Try as we have, we still haven't located anyone who has shown up.

So, all of my plans for this week, painting shutters, cleaning my house, getting my ornaments made for the Christmas exchange, have been put on hold. It's really alright. Those things will always be there waiting, but who knows how long  Mom will be here?  As long as she is, I will be there for her...and I won't regret a minute of it.

At the Hospital

We checked in at the desk in the cardiology dept. We'd no sooner gotten through the signing of the forms when a tall young man summoned Mom to follow him. As I watched her walk away, through the doors which would take her into the nuclear medicine area where I could not accompany her. I felt a little sad as I knew, from experience, what she'd be doing for the next few hours, and it would make her nervous not to have me near. She was about to undergo a 3-4 hour stress test where she'd be injected with nuclear dye which would make her heart race for a few minutes, while the doctor followed the action on a monitor.  It isn't such a bad test, but when you are a legally blind, partially deaf, 85 year old woman, all the waiting (much of it alone) and having nothing to do can be a bit upsetting.

I heard that familiar sound of Mom's cane clicking against the floor and then she was out of hearing distance and out of sight as the doors closed behind her.  I turned and went to the waiting room, choosing a seat at the end of the row near a small table. From there, I could watch the comings and goings of hospital personnel and where I'd be able to see Mom coming when she'd be ushered out. I tried to read, but it was impossible for me to do with the wall-hung tv blaring on the Fox channel. I thumbed through a current issue of Woman's Day magazine, absorbing very little.

Before long, I heard a male voice at the desk in the hall. I looked up to see two elderly men. One was a patient, the other was his younger brother. They came into the waiting room and chose chairs in 'my' row, leaving one vacant between us. The younger man looked at me, and as is the custom here in the south when someone looks you in the eye, I smiled and said good morning.  It was the beginning of a conversation which went on for the remainder of the morning, until they were called to see the older man's doctor.

Mr. M. was easy to talk with, a true gentle man. He was a soft-spoken Christian man, and it was obvious in his statements and in his testimonies. Mr. M. told me that he's 84 years old and in very good health. His wife, he said, is not doing so well. He has two brothers and a sister, the oldest of whom is 93 years old, the youngest one, 78 years old.  He spent his life as a farmer, starting out with cotton until the textile industry was sent overseas, and the local mills closed. Afterward they grew grains, and now they are, in his words, 'just cruising.'  Being a northerner, I'm not familiar with the growing of cotton, and asked him if what we were told was true. "Does cotton deplete the soil so that it's not good for other crops?" He told me, "Not at all. You just harvest your crop, the machines cut the remainders, and it goes back into the soil. You feed your land the nutrients, and it'll grow things. Leave it alone, and you'll struggle."   We talked about women's fashions after a very tall, large-boned but not heavy, woman hobbled by wearing tall wedged shoes that had straps all around the ankle...and a skirt that met her leg about six inches above the knee.  He shook his head and said with a chuckle, "I don't understand".  We talked much about the Lord, about church, about how some churches present over-bearing "requests" for people in church to 'serve the Lord' in specific places. We agreed that service is important, but that ministries can range from a mother staying home to minister to her young children, rather than hiring a sitter, so that her husband can go to choir rehearsal, all the way to the Pastor's position.  He said "there will be lots of time later for that young mother to minister in the church, should the Lord lead her to do that."

We passed the time away in pleasant conversation, until Mr. M's brother was called in for his appointment. Off they went, leaving me with thanks God for bring me someone so kind to share the morning with. I didn't find out where the man lived, or what his name was, other than to hear the nurse call his brother by name. I thought I'd never see him again, but when Mom and I returned yesterday to the hospital for removal of the 24 hour monitor, guess who I met at the elevator! This time, the meeting was brief, as we needed to make our appointment, but what a joy to see him again and introduce him to Mom!

The Lord is good, bringing just the right person along, at just the right time, for just the right reasons..... and I'm grateful!

Taking Leave....

While writing about the leaves of Fall the other day, I found myself with more thoughts than room to write them.
Do you remember collecting the prettiest of the fallen colored leaves?  As kids, and as the mother of five little people, I have spent many an Autumn season searching for just the 'right' leaf. That ever-present sibling rivalry meant each of the kids would hunt for the 'best' one. Of course, since beauty is in the eye of the beholder, we actually all "won" the competition. 

After we took the leaves back home, we would lay our piles out, carefully sorting them. The red and gold maples, the crimson tinged, the rust-colored, the brillian orange oaks, the bright yellow sassafras....each would be lined up and examined with a critical eye. The ones we chose as 'best' would then be placed between two layers of waxed paper, and Mom would seal them in with a warm iron. That would preserve their color for a little longer, and we could keep our treasure in our rooms to look at for as long as we wanted to.

Each year when Fall comes along, I bring some into the house in various ways. I look for lovely, fallen leaves, but I also bake some.  A few years ago, I found a copper cookie cutter set of leaves and acorns.

There are several shaped leaves and sizes, and they cut the dough with true precision. The doughs are flavored with lemon, sugar and cinnamon, or spices similar to gingerbread. They are baked, and frosted with yellow, orange, red, and rust icings, and piped with dark brown veins. It's fun and creative, as well as tasty. This year, there are new pumpkin and apple shaped cookie cutters. It may be time to start that project!
And with that, I'll take my leave....
(PS: Visit my friend's blog for a giveaway!  http://ajoyfulchaos.blogspot.com/2011/10/time-for-giveaway.html