Aspire to Inspire

As I took my early morning walk in town this morning, (yes its spring and I have tried to start up again), I noticed many of the same buildings and such that I saw when I last walked in the fall, and I thought of how they looked a little more run down than before. Then I noticed that I was walking a little slower than I probably was last fall. Guess the winter has been hard on all things. But the tulips are blooming and grass growing, so it give me hope to pick up my step a little and find something to smile about.

Was anxious to get the paper this week and see my column that I did for April. Like I hadn't already read it 10 times before I sent it in. But there is just something about seeing it in print that makes you feel good.

The picture is of the huge Bradford Pear tree that was blooming a week ago in our front yard. Blooms all gone now but beautiful new green leaves. The mocking bird has found us along with the pair of brown thrush that I love to watch. The squirrels are driving us nuts. Such pigs! Then the ground hog has come out from under the tool shed and is chowing down on the green grass.

Took hubby to Dr. on Wed for his 4 week check up and an xray of his new knee. Beautiful. It is amazing what they can do and how well he as done in only 4 weeks. No cane most of the time and able to drive himself to his out patient PT. Next post I will put the pic on.

Thought for the day: I let go of resistance and accept this moment exactly as it is--Deepak Chopra

I need another hobby?

Got my April column turned in to the newspaper a week early. Funny thing, I have hit a dry spell for reading now when I have a purpose for it other than my own pleasure. I keep a sheet of note paper in the book I am reading so I can take notes! I am reading the Poisionwood Bible right now. Seems to be taking me forever to read it. I think it is a great book, it's just me right now. But I have a stack of books that I have read recently that I think will be good to do reviews on.

Could be that I have started way too many projects lately. I am making baskets, and really like the process. Then I decided to research and find some ideas to use all the denim that I have been saving. So have started making some tote bags, then actually bought a pattern to make bags.(what a shocker when I looked at patterns! They are up to 16$/$18 each) Plus I am trying to finish a counted cross stitch picture, so guess its no wonder I haven't been reading much. I will attach a pic of my big 10 inch bowel that I made the other day. Hope to get a bunch of stuff made for the Fall Festival this year. Plus the rugs that I weave. Oh, and I set up the loom to make narrow rugs that can be made into totes, plan to put lining in them. Whew, I am tired!

Plus I have been the chauffeur for everyone for the last 3 weeks. But hubby is allowed to drive now, at least the short distance to out patient therapy. He is working hard to get back to being his independent ornery self. Doing a pretty good job. His knee is healing up really well.

Thought for today: I thought I wanted a career, turns out I just wanted a pay check--Anonymous

Celtic Thunder - Steal Away (One more time)

If you get a blank screen, just click on it anyway and the video comes on.

I have been immersed in Celtic Thunder this week so have to share just one more song. What a beautiful song. I could only find this one with the QVC junk at the bottom but it appears to be fairly recent as Damian has grown up and seems to be the lead singer.

What a beautiful message it gives us. We all need to be able to steel away and start a new. I love their harmonizing. So I leave it here for the week.

Thought for the day: One advantage of growing old: Your secrets are safe with your friends because they can't remember either.

Is this your cat?

I saw this today and knew I had to post it. I understand that my niece is taking her cat on walks now with a leash. Somehow that just seems so wrong to walk a cat on a leash. But then again I guess anything can be leash trained if you work at it long enough.

So Miss Niece, is this your cat??

Crazy Squirrels!

I have a new meaning to the words "pole dancing".

We have trouble with squirrels climbing our bird feeding station by climbing right up the pole then down the chain to the feeder. Wouldn't be so bad but then they chew on the feeder.

So being smarter than a squirrel, I figured if I greased the pole they couldn't climb up.

I happened to see one the first time I did it with spray Pam. He jumped up about 3 feet onto the pole then slid down. I wish I could have seen if he was shaking his paws, wondering what the heck just happened. LOL. But he was out of site behind the brick wall.

I now find that I have to scrub the pole about every 3 weeks with a degreaser as it collects dust and gets tacky and they are right back up the pole. I now use cooking oil and it works the best.

Oh, what we do for entertainment. Reminds me of when we lived on the farm and found that when we sprayed water on the propane tank in the evening the horse flys swarmed around and landed on the wet tank and we could swat them! At least we kept the population down from biting the horse.

Maybe its not just the squirrels that are nuts!

Thought for the day: Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.

Look at me

OK now what is new with the book lady? I love this picture of the animals reading space. I wish I had room for something like this. Hey I would be happy if I had space for a coffee machine, and maybe a WiFi space, maybe some easy chairs. Oh, I got carried away there, sorry about that.

Lets see I haven't mentioned my hubby's recovery after his knee surg on the 8th of Mar. He is really doing very well. We have our ups and downs, but he is healing up nicely and will get his staples out next Wed. He uses a minimal amount of pain med, as the narcotic makes him dopey, and most of time he doesn't have much pain, till he goes to bed. So tylenol and ice packs do the trick most of the time. But it will all pass and he will be out mowing before long. Spring is upon us, and aren't we glad?

The other biggie in my life is that I am writing a column for the local paper doing book reviews of what ever I am reading. So it puts a little pressure on me to choose books that I think would be interesting to others. But then I think, what the heck, if I thought they were interesting enough to read myself then that should cut the mustard. I sent the editor a sample of some book reviews I wrote and he said he would give me a rather large space once a month to do 3 or 4 reviews. Wow, I didn't expect that at all. I was hoping for a tiny space for a few paragraphs once a week. I see it as free advertisement. Now if I can be witty enough to catch a few readers, we will see. Oh the pressure:)

Thought for the day: Why waste time learning, when ignorance is instantaneous

Maxine's Censored St. Patrick's Day Song (maxine.com)

Had to share this today!

Celtic Thunder - Caledonia

Another must share today. I enjoyed this group on PBS the other night. They are wonderful and so "beautiful" to watch, esp. in the kilts! Made me go to Amazon and order a couple CD's. I am such a push over!

What makes an "Old" blogger?

I sometimes wonder why we love to blog. Alot of the time I wonder why we do FB and whats with all the tweeting? We somehow want all the world to hear us and love us. So we try to write witty things that will get us some adoration. If no one read our blogs would we still write?

Good question. I know when I first started blogging in 2005, I did it as a private little journal thing. Then I started getting comments. Wow that was fun. Someone out there was reading my stuff. Then I gave my site out to all my family. Now that is a two edge sword. You start to sort of edit your words that you type cause you don't want to hurt someones feelings or reveal something that you might not want to share with family. But on the other hand there was several years there when alot of the extended family was blogging. It was so much fun to log on and see what everyone wrote or what their comments were on what I wrote.

Somewhere along the line many family members sort of fizzled out. I think when the FB got to be popular and then the Twitter thing. But gee I miss the stories! There was some good meat and potatoes there, not just little one sentence comment that we are supposed to get all excited about. Example: "Look out Texas!! Road Trip." Sorry daughter, just used you as an example. Now a blog post about the trip would be awesome!

So 6 years of blogging and I have no intention of stopping. I may get dry spells, but I still have alot to say. If I get comments I still get excited. But I can't help but wonder who all is actually reading all this. I have done a little blog surfing and boy there is so much stuff out there. What makes one more interesting than another for a stranger to follow? Of course I have a few that I follow, some I have stopped following because they get to whinny or to long winded. So on that note I better stop!!

Thought for the day: It's better to be a has-been than a never-was.

Young Me up a tree

In writing the post yesterday I sort of traveled back in time and alot of memories from those days came flooding back. I will just randomly recall events from the time living in this house, in this little town.

As I mentioned, my dad was handicapped, but that didn't mean he was helpless. He always had a big garden and provided for us the best he could. Frequently he raised rabbits. I always said that its a wonder I didn't hop instead of walk. He got permission from someone to garden down near the river, which was just across the street a block from us. The soil was very sandy and he raised sweet potatoes and one year he raised peanuts. I don't remember to well how the process of boiling or roasting the peanuts went. He caught a snapping turtle once and was determined to get it out of the shell so mom could make us turtle soup. I remember the turtle but not the soup. Probably a good thing.

Another time I was playing dress up with some old discarded high heels and had been marching around for some time. When I took them off there was a huge spider sitting on my toes! Yikes! He could have bitten me but guess he had room and just waited for me to get my foot out of his home.

We played with a couple girls down the street. They were "rich" by our standards. (They already had walking dolls.) But as kids it didn't seem to matter much. At dusk we would play under the only street light and throw things in the air to coax the bats to swoop down. We played along the river, always trying to find stuff.

During the winter when the river froze over, the "rich" friends would go out on their pretty white ice skates. Their dad would go with them and if snow was on the ice he would scoop it off to make a big circle. The guy that we rented from gave us an old old pair of brown men's skates. With a few layers of socks I was able to get out on the ice and actually learned to skate a little.

One memory that I will end with is a favorite of my mother. As I mentioned we didn't have electricity but she would read to us. Back then books like The Bobsy Twins, Big Red, Old Yeller, and Black Beauty were published in what was called Big Golden Books. I have a vivid memory of leaning over Mom's shoulder as she was reading one and having tears fall down onto her shoulder because it was a really sad part.

Thought for the day: Always be yourself, because the people that matter, don't mind. And the ones that mind, don't matter.

Long, long ago

Decided I would find old pictures in my albums and write a little about them as I remember.
This picture is of myself taken back when I was about 7. As you can see I am proudly holding onto a doll. There is a long story about this doll and about where I lived.

Well like many folks we were quite poor when I was growing up. My dad was handicapped from polio and by the time I was this age he would have been in his late 40's at least and unable to work anymore. We lived on ADC, which is Aid for Dependant Children in the state of Iowa.
We moved around a lot, sometimes twice in the same school year. At this time we lived in a tiny little town in SE Iowa. The little cottage had no electricity or running water. This is my last memory of using kerosene lamps in the evening. Don't know what Mom cooked on.

My little brother and I pretty much ran loose and since it was a very small town, like 50 people, I think we got acquainted with most of them. There was this old man, his name was Walter, that lived up the street from us. He didn't have electricity either and was an old bachelor. My brother and I would hang out at his house as he gave us some attention that I am sure we were craving. By today's standards this would have all been a big red flag if you know what I mean.

Walter loved kids. When we visited him, he would tell us stories and warn us to not go past his living room as he had a big black snake that lived under his bed so he didn't have to worry about mice. I sort of think this was true. We would sit and help him pick walnut meats out and he fed them to the birds (what we didn't eat). He would tack his old pancakes to the tree for the birds to eat also.

One day, I don't remember now if it was for Christmas or my birthday, he gave me this doll that he ordered. She is a walking doll. I think it cost around 18$. Which was a lot for him to spend on some rag tag little girl up the street. He was just a very nice old man who loved kids. It made me feel special probably for the first time in my life. Later on we moved away from there and I didn't see Walter till I was as teenager. I ran into him at the little country store in that same town. See we were living across the river at that time in another rental house. He remembered me, but it felt strange to talk to him by then. Years later I heard that he died in a house fire at a really old age. It made me feel sad.

Recently I got this old doll out of the trunk, washed her hair and pin curled it, and washed her cloths. Think I will take it to my store and sit her on the shelf. She brings back a lot of memories and all of them good. I have some more to tell about living at this house so maybe next week I will do this again.

Thought for the day: Nobody can make you feel inferior without your permission. --Eleanor Roosevelt

A fixer-upper? Or fire up the cat?

Last fall when I was doing my morning walks here in the little town where I have my book store I took some pictures of some of the towns decay.

As you can see, someone had good intentions and started putting siding on this house and at some point decided it wasn't worth it or else the load of used siding that a friend gave them just ran out. Who knows. It is sad to see so many old houses like this that just need to be dozed in.

But if you could know their history and the families that lived in them from the time they were new and what was the story on how they became so run down that they were abandoned, wouldn't it be interesting.

I do know about the first picture. Way back many years ago it was the hospital here. When I lived in this area the first time back in the 70's it was still open and I remember going to the Dr. there during clinic hours and asked him to pierce my ears and he sort of ran me off, telling me that he had sick people to see and didn't do piercings. Gee all I wanted was to get holes popped into my ear lobes in a sterile setting. At least they didn't charge me for the office call. I think I had a friend do it for me later. I understand that some folks have owned the building for a few years and are living in the back of it and have been putting in new windows. Boy if that building could talk!

Thought for the day: A clear conscience is usually a sign of a bad memory

Hooked on Creamers

Just found a new coffee creamer that actually has real milk and cream as primary ingredient and the flavor I got, Vanilla Carmel is wonderful. It is by Coffee House. The Coffee Mate I have used for along time has a list of ingredients a mile long. Think I will try the chocolate next, love chocolate in my coffee.

Thought for today: He who laughs last, thinks slowest.

At least one hand is warm

Just realized why when I am playing on my computer (mostly using the mouse) my right hand gets so cold and the left is warm.

Well the room is quite cool, as my Internet is at my little store and this corner doesn't get the heat very well. So that is why the right hand is cold. Oh, and feet too. But the left hand is warmer because I noticed that I tend to put it under my left thigh if I am just mousing around. Like when I play my daily dose of Spider Solitaire. Guess I am sort of hooked on it. Did play regular solitaire yesterday till I finally won for the first time. That one is hard to win, you can't cheat with the computer!

Thought for the day: If the shoe fits, get another one just like it.

Just a little BS on my brain today

Just hear a commercial on the radio, telling you that when you get your tax return to spend it on something you really need and will make you happy. A quick and easy divorce. I couldn't believe I heard it. Wow we can sell anything can't we?

Really raining today, probably be several inches when it is done. At least it is washing away all that crap left by the snow plow in front of my store. Oh, and gas jumped from 2.92 to 3.19 in one day.

Sitting here at my computer I can look into a little book case that I put books that I take in from customers that I think I want to read. Here are some titles:

Foreign Body by Robin Cook

The Ice Child by Elizabeth McGregor

The Man in the Iron Mask by Alexqandre Dumes

Sunday at Tiffany's by James Pattersdon

The Loch by Steve Alten

The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying

The Fields of Eden by Richard Wheeler

Songs in Ordinary Time by Mary McGarry Morris

OK that is probably boring enough. Better stop and go back to my weaving. Got a good rug going with browns and a bright green and some yellow.

Thought for the day: Dreams are poems from the subconscious

This ones for my girl

When I was just short of turning 21 my daughter was born. We were talking the other day and I realized that everyone should know about their birth. I always just heard I was born in a blizzard and like all the kids in my family was born at home. And thats about all I know.

I got married at 17 so that I wouldn't have to move clear across the country with my parents. When I was 19 my son was born. When he was just a toddler we decided he was so darn cute we should have another one. When I was about 5 or 6 mo. pregnant we moved out to the east coast to live near my parents and my big brother.

We were able to rent a little one bedroom cottage in a trailer park. I remember getting my first washing machine (ringer type) while there. We had a small dirt yard that was level with the doorway, so with a little guy coming in and out it was hard to keep the dust down. I worked a little as a grocery clerk just up the road for a month or so.

When I started labor we headed to the hospital, think we must have taken the son to my Moms. I remember it was raining. I was to experience a very different delivery than when my son was born in a little county hospital. I was in a very large City hospital. They delivered several babies a day. I remember I was progressing slow so they started a pit drip to make it more painful, (or was it to just make the contractions work better?) Any way back in those days they thought that you had to stay flat on your back or it wasn't effective. Being a labor and delivery nurse many years later myself I learned that was all a bunch of hooey! Anyway they kept coming in and making me turn back. I labored all day and somewhere around 7pm was delivered of a 7 lb 3 0z. baby girl via forceps! Here I am a good size healthy 20 year old and couldn't spit out a little 7 # baby! In hind sight I know know that she was turned face up and that was why I had so much back pain and the need for the forceps.

Back then you had to stay in the hospital for 2 or 3 days at least. I was breast feeding so when they would bring the babies down the hall to give to the Mamas they had a big cart on wheels. No rooming in back then. We have told the story of how the babies were in these little bins on the cart and sadly we teased our daughter that maybe they got babies mixed up. Little did I know that her brother took up on this and she lived in fear that maybe she didn't belong to us! Well they were ID'd with wrist bands and I have no doubt. But they really did look like vegetable carts to me!

So we took her home and big brother got moved out of the baby crib and put into a little cot so the new baby had a bed. Lucky that we were able to move into a large house a few months later. The picture posted here is of my daughter and I way back then, standing in front of that house with our matching dresses that I made.

Thought for the day: You may be only one person in the world, but you may also be the world to one person.

Everyone loses

I hear some sad stories from my customers. Had a guy in today that I see every few weeks. He usually is looking for books for his grandson who is now 12. He was telling me how his grandson is being raised and it makes you wonder how he will turn out. I guess he lives one week with his dad and one week with his mother. His dad is "shacking up"(grandpa's words) with a gal and lives in a converted garage at grandpa's house. The mother works and is in a band. The grandpa is the one who takes the boy to school everyday and picks him up, buys all his cloths and school lunches, but has no custodial rights. So some days the boy doesn't know for sure where he is supposed to sleep as the mom may be out really late with band practice. So he ends up just being a pawn being shuffled from here to there. Grandpa says he is starting to see some acting out, (surprise!) Grandpa is 65 and says he is retired now and would like to look at getting out and traveling but feels he needs to be there for this kid. He would like to have him full time and I think wash his hands of the 40+ year old son. Looks like there is only losers in this story.

Thought for the day: If you can't be a good example- then you'll just have to be a horrible warning.

Ice cream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream

All the snow and ice that we have had this month makes me think of the times when I was growing up that we made ice cream, but only in the winter.

During the time that I was about 9 to 12 we lived on a farm in Iowa. We didn't have much, not even an ice cream churn. But one winter the neighbor loaned theirs to us for the whole winter. Dad would chop blocks of ice from the pond, put them in a gunny sack and smash them with the side of a flat ax to break the ice up into small pieces.

Dad was milking a couple goats for the milk that was to help heal his ulcers. So now we have free milk and free ice, and a free ice cream churn. All we need to buy was the course salt. When the milk with sugar and vanilla was put in the steel cylinder, the crushed ice was put around it and the salt sprinkled liberally into the salt. This makes the ice start to melt and is colder. So as the handle is cranked (we all got a turn at this) to turn the cylinder around and around the cold starts to freeze the milk. Walla you get ice cream. What made it the best was that when it was close to being set up we would open the container and add some of Mom's home canned blackberries. I especially liked this as I always thought I could smell goat in the milk!

Our weekly churning of home made ice cream was a real treat for us that winter. I have many memories of the time that we lived there. We moved around so often that to be in one home for 3 or 4 years seemed like a "really" home. I made many trips up the hill on that gravel road to visit those neighbors. Her name was Ethel and I am sure she was a big influence on me and probably never knew.

Thought for the day: The happiness of your life depends on the quality of your thoughts

Don't mess with me

Ever notice how in the winter time our days seem so repetitious? Seems like you do the same thing every day and the days seem to run together. Guess I have been going a little stir crazy being stuck at home for almost 2 weeks after this big blizzard hit. It makes you lose track of what day it is if you don't have to go anywhere. Alot of businesses lost money for sure.

Hopefully you can click on the pic and see the caption. If not the first one says: I'm a broccoli and I look like a tree. The second one says: I'm a walnut and I look like a brain. The last one says: I'm a mushroom and I am sick of playing this game.

I just got back into my book store this past Wed. but since I am located on the highway you can imagine what the state left for me all along the highway in front, where customers park. Things are melting and there is an area to park across the alley but then you have to still walk in the slushy snow. We set record lows, and now we will see some record highs, I think for this coming week. Good by snow and ice.

Had a customer in a couple weeks ago that is a farm person. She is single and she was telling me about a new boy friend and about this big sign she has at her home, sort of a warning. So she gives me my Thought for the day:

Don't mess with me, I've castrated everything on this farm!

Looking out my kitchen window

This was taken on the 2nd of Feb. Day after the blizzard. We used the snow blower to take the snow off the deck. At least 12 in. plus drifting off the roof. So glad it is warming up and will be up in the 60's by next Wed. Think we got all our snow within the first 2 weeks of Feb. Got additional 6 in. a few days after this one.

So looking at books that I want to read. When customers bring books in to trade, they always tell me which ones were good. So I end up with this stack of books that just get bigger and bigger. Just finished The Dollmaker by Harriette Arnow, which was verrrrrry good but took awhile to read. Seems like I have been reading alot of historical tragic books lately..This one about a lady displaced from her home in Kentucky in the early 40's so her husband could work the steel mills in Detroit. Wow what a story. I just looked it up on the net and found that when it was made into a movie in 1984 Jane Fonda played the role of the main character. I just can't see her in that person that I got to know in the book. Maybe I can find the movie one day.

But I got distracted, I want to list the ones I plan to read soon:

The Ice Child by Elizabeth McGregor

The Other by David Guterson

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxcy by Douglas Adams

Intervetion by Robin Cook

Jewel by Bret Lott

The Man in The Iron Mask by Alexandre Dumas

The Lucky one by Nicholas Sparks

and the one I just started: The Time Travlers wife by Audrey Niffenegger. That all should keep me busy for awhile.

Almost forgot I was going to re-read an 8 book series by Diana Garbaldon. Oh, so many books so little time

Thought for the day: A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step:
Confucious