It's been awhile since I blogged. Too many things have been happening. Comings and goings. Good things and bad.
What I keep reminding myself is that at the end of the path there are great and glorious blessings!
I'm watching friends and loved ones go through challenges, joys and heartaches. And I wonder how to be there for them; to celebrate and to cry with them. I guess what I want to say is that life goes so fast, we need to make sure that we make the most of every minute! Don't let the important things slip away. Life is all so very precious.

Books, Delicious Books

I love to read. I read everyday. Honestly I read so many books that I often can't remember the names and authors of all the books I read and I find myself starting a book only to discover that I've already read it. I know I should keep track. I confess I am a bookaholic, but....I just finished a delicious book. I don't rave about stories very often and I don't share them except with my nearest and dearest. My daughters have suffered through books that I fell in love with years ago and I have insisted that they must read. They are usually gracious and tactful in their responses. But today I finished a delight. The story is told in the form of letters from several people to other people. Usually I detest that sort of writing, but I was starving for something to read, the only other choice I had was a cookbook and since I am dieting I am trying to avoid reading cookbooks - it's very self-defeating. So I forged onward with the letters and it only took a couple of pages to completely captivate me. So I suppose you are wondering what book I am gushing about here. I will tell you; The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows. The title caught my attention and the story enchanted me. I feel like I have a whole set of wonderful new friends and a charming new dream vacation destination. So I am sharing with you, my friends. Take a couple of hours off from your worries and cares and think of me as you make some new friends of your own.
(There are a few adult situations discreetly mentioned in the book, but I would feel completely comfortable having my 14 year old daughter read this book.)

I know it has been awhile since I last posted - too many things going on. Changes are happening all around. One of my sons graduated from college. Another is engaged. One is in the west doing missionary work and wondering if spring will ever come. My parents will be leaving on their mission soon, but they are coming to Virginia!
Here in Virginia we have our spring. The air is already perfumed, I can smell honeysuckle, roses, and some early magnolias. I love it. The beauties around me help me deal with changes that I don't always want to accept gracefully. I read an interesting quote the other day, it said something like this, "One of the main things in life that you should realize is that life consists of getting used to a great many things that are the results of other people's choices, rather than your own."
There are people I love who are experiencing changes that are painful and that is hard. It is hard for me because as a mother I want to make it all better. I want things to be perfect and right. Life doesn't always happen the way you want it or plan it to. I would have thought that with my advanced years I would be more prepared to deal with things. In reality I've found that being older just means I have more people to fret over, worry about, and pray for. And there are that many more people making choices that give me the opportunity to practice gracefully dealing with change.
Oh for the good old days when diapers were the only things that were always being changed at my house!

Spring

It is spring! We celebrated Easter with blossoms and today as I was walking , I was greeted by the perfume of the first lilacs in bloom. I love the promise of new life, new beginnings, renewal, and fresh starts.
My house is full of flowers and sunshine. I'm doing a little spring cleaning. I confess I'm not a big spring cleaner. For many years we would just move every year or so and I did moving cleaning, so the habit of spring cleaning is a little alien. But I have been rearranging and clearing away, cleaning out and freshening up. It feels good.
As for the diet....now that the peanut butter eggs are off the shelves at the store I will begin again!

Diet Update

I walked and jogged five miles since I determined to get thin. I twisted through an entire episode of Gilmore Girls. I was only slightly sabotaged this weekend by my family - chocolate cookies, apple dumplings, and Girl Scout Thin Mints. But I have managed to lose 1/2 of a pound. Why do I not feel successful? I want skinny NOW! (Sorry for shouting.)
Today I have not yet exercised though I have carefully monitored my caloric intake. I will do my treadmill trekking in a little while. I will not be distracted by my sweet children's affection for my fat or my husband's alleged fondness of curves.( I am determined to weigh less than my husband.) I have a pair of skinny jeans and a lovely pink dress that I try on when the call of food seems overwhelming. Hopefully between the allure of skinny clothes and an ample supple of 0 calorie flavored water I will triumph over the ever present call of chocolate and chips!

Delight in Fatness

I'm going public! I'm fat....my sweet children call me soft. My benevolent husband calls me curvy. I call myself fat and sassy. I don't mind being sassy, but I'd like to be slender. My self image is complicated by the fact that I have three gorgeous daughters to compare myself to every day. I know I will never look like a 16 year old again and I really don't want to, but I would like to be able to see my toes!
So I'm going public and begging your help. I'm going to wean myself from sugar and white flour and I am going to start exercising. My first task is to extract the treadmill from the grip the basement has on it. I am going to use it for at least 30 minutes a day - 5 days a week. I have promised myself one treat a week - a modest serving of sugar or white flour. I know there may be weeks when I have a profound need for a hamburger or a brownie and I don't need any extra guilt so I will allow myself a carefully chosen indulgence.
So I'm asking you, my friends to help me stay accountable. You notice I'm not disclosing my weight - but I will share my weight loss as it happens. Maybe I will even post a picture when I discover my cheekbones again!

Home Evening

We had a lovely home evening. All my children wanted to spend the entire evening together enjoying each others company. Alas, alack.....then they tried to decide how they should spend the time together. I have six children at home this evening and none of them want to watch the same movie or play the same game. They did all agree to eat the same treat and they did a thorough job of that. I have suggested that they watch the Olympics, but as in all compromises no one is completely satisfied. But at least the balloting has stopped. Now the boys have gone to watch something of their own in their room and the girls are gently debating the Olympic events that are being broadcast tonight. I hear someone running a vacuum, at least on of my children has found something productive to do. The sweet and long suffering father has gone out to do some snow removal, it relaxes him. I think I will make some hot chocolate and find a quiet corner and savor a moment of solitude.

A New Journal

My sweetheart gave me a delicious new journal this week. I am so excited to write in it, but I still have a few pages left in my present journal. Blank pages thrill me. I started my first diary when I was 10. It was the kind with a key and yes, I wore the key around my neck on a ribbon. There were a few occasions that I carefully hid the key and the diary. But my brothers always found the key and the diary and then quoted from it to my great embarrassment.
But I kept writing. My journal got me through my teenage years when I was sure I didn't have a friend in the world. It has been gratifying that as I pass my journals on to my teenage daughters they are amazed that I wrote exactly what they have written in their own journals. My journal helped me deal with the homesickness and struggles of college, the joys and thrills of courtship and the delights and fatigues of early motherhood.
One of my great grandmothers kept a diary of sorts and what a surprise to me to read her words that mirrored my own over 50 years later.
Words have power. I hope my words will someday be able to comfort, encourage, and maybe even delight those who read them. I am sure at least that the cover of my new journal will make someone smile!

Sweethearts

It's February. Since I have become "Southern" I have become accustom to daffodils in February; daffodils, forsythia, crocus, and the promise of spring. Instead I am dealing with a couple feet of snow and ice.
But we are celebrating the promise of love and faith that spring will come. So I decorated my table and I am celebrating the fact that I am blessed beyond measure especially in my family.
I got "snowed out" when I took my missionary out to the MTC. I couldn't get an airplane to carry me back to old Virginie - too much snow. But I have a sister and brothers who made my extra days among them sweet and I have incredible children and a fine husband here who took care of things here at home so that I didn't have to worry.
I confess they left a few things undone so that when I got home it was evident that they still need me...at least a little bit.

Wintery Thoughts

I have cabin fever. I feel my body shifting into hibernating mode. It has been years since I've experienced this phenomenon. At one point my family lived in Wisconsin and winters were serious business there. I remember the year that the sun did not shine for 100 days. I learned what cabin fever really was that winter as I awaited the birth of my fifth child and my first four little sons did there best to make me crazy. But this winter I am reminded of those long dark days. We live in what is considered the south now. Winters in the past few years have been mild and fairly brief - just long enough for me to enjoy the cold crisp winds and to admire the snow for a day or two. This year the drifts along the curbs have been there long enough to get gray and grungy. I'm ready for spring!
I keep getting seed catalogs in the mail and I get carried away thinking of all the flowers I would like to plant when it is warm - I know that in reality I 'm happiest with flowers that grow without feeding or weeding! But I like to dream about a garden full of gorgeous blooms and fragrances. It's a good way to get through January!

I'm also dealing with the post-New Years resolution slump - you know where you realize that you must have been high on candy canes or something when you made that ridiculous list of plans for the New Year that now in the cold light of day seem presumptuous and preposterous. (What was I thinking? - who needs to fit into size 6 jeans, I don't like jeans anyway!) But I am very resilient. I will warm up with a big mug of hot chocolate, generously topped with whipped cream and I will pull out one of my favorite books, it's been at least six months since I read Little Women and I will make a list of flowers that I am likely to grow in the spring - like nasturtiums,
that don't need much in the way of attention other than admiring once in bloom. Then I will sing the song about Popcorn on the Apricot Tree, and In the Leafy Tree Tops and Give Said the Little Stream. And before I know it I will be suffering from the heat and the humidity of a southern summer and I will be singing Once There Was a Snowman and dreaming of winter.