January Hair

This is a hair post and some other things post.  

Here I am in my bed, where I spent so much of my time after surgery and treatment.  The other part of my time was spent on our new couch, and that was it.  

My daughter took this photo, I was trying to get my new camera to flash, but that is another story for another day, and she managed it.  She has the same camera.  I was going to zoom in and use it for my January hair, but I was pleased with the way my corner looked.  It's where I am every night, wrapped in my shawl on cold ones with my lamp going to aid my aging eyes and the book I relax with.  I was in bed early.  Jim had been called out and I had a big day.  My bed is where I go when I'm not going to do anything more that day except decompress.  

Here's my better hair photo.  I couldn't resist the matching colors.  

And the back, and a glimpse in my china cupboard and the glassware I like.  

This is a pretty late January hair, but the photo was taken earlier, but I had an accident with my laptop that involved water.  It is still in the shop, but the hard drive seems to be in order so all is not lost and we are hopeful that it can be repaired.  

I do have another computer, but I don't like it as well for ease of use.   

Our 25th Anniversary

I know these photos are over a year and a half old.  I want to post them because I like them.   

We celebrated our 25th anniversary with my coming home from the hospital after surgery for the now famous sinus tumor.  We had thought about doing something special to celebrate that year.  And if special means something out of the ordinary, we did that.  

My friend Raimie kindly offered us a photo shoot for that year, and we squeaked it in when I was recovered from surgery enough to stand up for a while and before treatment started.  

So, thanks to her, we have some nice photos of us "BC" and our place. 

Thank you, dear friend.

December Hair

As would be fairly obvious to those who know me, I am not at home.  We took a visit to see Jim's sister in Wisconsin, and I would like to put those photos on the blog, but not in a hair post.  So, you will just have to wait.  

I chose a back photo this time so you can see how long my hair is getting.  You can also see one of the problems I have with doing anything with it.  My hair has always been thinner and shorter on one side than the other and I am not sure if this is normal to what my hair used to be, or if it is radiation damage on that side.  Radiation is hard on hair follicles and I was warned that permanent hair loss was a very real possibility.  This disparity in length won't be a problem later, after while, SOMETIME.  

So, most of the time I just let it go and ignore the way it looks.  You know what somebody said, "I just lost my hair and can't do a thing with it."

It looks pretty good here.  It's all in the way you point the camera.  

Looking Back to November Hair

Parts of me feel like I should be blogging oftener, but as I made this blog primarily for me, I just haven't felt like it, so I didn't.  The end of the year is a busy time with holidays, finishing up yearly office work, the end of school and special visits with special people.  I just didn't feel up to it.  I have most of my photos on my old computer where I am going through and sorting and printing them for a book for Lynette, but I spend most of my time on the laptop, and I need to do some different things.  Like start keeping 2014 photos on that computer. 

When I am busy I get too tired, and I don't get a lot of things done except sit on the couch and knit.  Blogging takes mind energy to sort and upload photos, and it just didn't get done.  

ANYWHO!!

Here is a bit from November.  I hope to get caught up, but January is a busy month, too.  

November Hair

A lovely surprise limited edition print by Paul Sloan searched for by my daughter and paid for by my husband because I loved it on our Oregon trip. 

A photograph of the print itself.  It is a lovely thing, hanging now in my living room over a choice display of books.

Which I am now thinking it would be a lovely photo to post but it would mean getting up, finding the camera, taking the photo, downloading it to the computer, uploading it to blogger, so I'm not going to do it.  I'm tired.  This week I have been to Wisconsin, attended a birthday party, have company and the boys were here today.  

Grandkids in November

Since Zane has gone to school, (Pre-K), Barry, who is a "one word man" at the moment and gets the message across very well, actually, copies Zane in nearly everything he does.  

At our house the other day, Zane was lining up toy trees so Barry wanted to also.  Of course, that causes some difficulties since Zane isn't the best at sharing, but after a division of trees Barry lined his up and begins to count, "one, four, fifteen...". He knows now that you use those words when you line things up and point.  He knows when people ask, "what color is this?", you use other words, like blue or green.  He knows these other shapes, where Zane says, "ABCEFG...", that he should say, "ABC, ABC, ABC,". 

The things a second child learns, and so soon!

Barry at just two is at the toddler stage.  It's so cute to watch this age grow and learn, to get command over themselves and the language.  Of course, that command come with so much, "no", "me do it", and "me too", that needs guided into proper channels all the while the parent or grandparent goes berserk listening to the constant willful demands.

Zane is loving school, one of four in his class.  He gets breakfast and lunch, has learned to say and recognize his letters and numbers.  He has learned a myriad of action songs and loves to perform.  

I love these boys.  They are a trial sometimes, being too active and too smart for their own good. 

We can't forget Christian who at 5 months is hitching himself along with elbows and toes.  He's a fast traveler, albeit unconventional, getting where he wants to go, either right over the other boys' toys to get what he wants.  Then if he can hold it, it goes right into his mouth.  

Barry with Croca-dilly

Papa and the boys.

Zane at his Veteran's Day program convulsed the audience by speaking into the microphone as he walked by. Everyone else who took part in the program behaved conventionally.   

Old Stories

I visited an old lady in the nursing home today.  She is 94 years old and didn't want to end up there, but she needs to heal, and there is no one to look after her at home.  She was good to me when I was in college, so I went to see her.

She is very deaf, so the best thing to do is get her to do the talking.  I know enough about her life to know questions to ask.

So, she talked.  She told me about her early days of marriage when her husband was in the service. She told me about her first job, a quarter a night for staying with an old neighbor lady, and bringing that quarter home to her folks.  She told about what living was like as a child with 10 kids at home and when her mother died and the youngest was 9.  She told me when her father changed jobs from a mechanic that worked until late at night to painting at the hospital, that her two oldest brothers worked out for farmers early, of losing their house in the country and finding friends that had a place in town for them.

She told about learning to play on an old pump organ, (she never had lessons), about dressing chickens, about the hard couple of days of canning beef after butchering, how her mother wanted 300 quarts of tomatoes in the cellar.

She remembered how one of her brothers liked flowers from a tot, and ran a florist shop all his days.

She loved to visit one grandma more than the other because one was "clean", and the other full of fun.  She was happy when they got their Maytag, and happier when they got a two-tub model.  It was nice not to wash with a board.  She remembered a long full day's washing with 6 beds, and always someone in diapers.

She remembered those early days when they went to meetings in the schoolhouse and found something more important than anything else, even though sometimes it meant a 4 mile walk one way on Sundays.

She laughed, I laughed.  She told me she's had a good life.

When she started to tell the same stories again, it was time to go.  It was an hour well spent.  Those days so long ago are gone, the children of this day can't understand them.  I feel a bridge between, remembering fresh chickens for dinner and the old wringer washer my grandma used when I was a child.

When asked how she likes it there, she says, "I haven't been here long enough."

What is next in her story?  Who knows? But she is making the best of it at the moment.  A good lesson for all of us to learn.

October Hair

Here it is again, time for the hair of the month.  I decided to comb my bangs down over my forehead so I could see how long they were getting.  It really makes my little old lady hair, don't you think?

Too bad I didn't think about wearing something classier than my jammies and robe.  

You know, if you remember to keep your chin up when someone takes your picture, the wrinkles on your neck don't look so bad.  

My Husband is Nuts...

...about tractors,

old tractors,

to be exact, old John Deere tractors.

Especially this one, which is like the first brand new tractor his father bought.

Sadly, his wife is rather nuts, too.  She likes them as well, and didn't have any fits when he bought it without telling her. 

We were in luck, the price was right.  

So, here it is.  It needs work, but that will come. 

Not this year, maybe not even next year. 

But, sometime, it will be bright green again.

September Hair

This is what I look like when I'm not ready for a picture.  

It also is what I look like when I haven't combed my hair.

It is also what I look like when I go visit a person in a burn center.  That was a new experience for me.   A new friend of ours was badly burned with hot water when he was working and is now recovering in the hospital.    

I feel the urge to write again.  I am enjoying these lovely blue and gold days of fall.  I am sorry that my deck plants have completely died after being gone four special days.  I have no idea how to keep them alive.  They have to be watered twice a day in the heat of summer.  I lined those coconut shell liners with plastic bags, no luck.  

I tried diapers over the plastic bags, still no luck.  I think if I had some half moon plastic liners that fit right in, it would help, but I can't find any.  

I'm about ready to clean the deck up and take the geraniums in that managed to survive.  

I'm just no good at plants that need to be watered on a schedule.  I just don't do schedules well at all.  My mini garden died, out on the deck. Half of my mini succulent garden died, in the house. My favorite plant is the eternity plant I got for my birthday this year.  It thrives on neglect.  Sigh.  The only reason my flower garden lives is because it is on automatic sprinklers. 

I made a pumpkin pie yesterday.  I put yogurt in instead of the milk.  Not an acceptable substitute if you like Libby's recipe.  I remember now I had other plans for the yogurt.  My sister in law makes her own yogurt, and then makes her own ranch dressing with it and a packet of mix.  I though I would try it with store bought.  I imagine if you had your own mix of herbs and spices you could do it without the package.  

Now I need more yogurt.  

Sometimes less is more...

have a good day. 

The Tuesday Muse

A week later...

My title idea is somewhat borrowed from a fellow blogger, but it fits what I feel like today.  I don't have any great message or photos, but I feel like writing.  

I have had the privilege of some very special days that I haven't had for over a year.  They are a reminder of all I hold dear and inspire in me a desire to do a better job of living.  

However, it also wore me out.  I see that I can go on with stimulation and food for several days, but home again, it was like walking around in a fog.  I went to bed early, as a resting place for mind as well as body, the two days I've been home.  I've also done very little around the house.  Unpacking and laundry are being done a very little at a time.  Office work, 15 minutes at a time.  I have piles of both waiting for me as I get rested up.  

I nap in the afternoons.  

I am trying to get the more important things out of the way first.  

At the end of last year, I made the debatable choice to be the treasurer of the theater booster club since no one was taking the job and I thought I could handle it.  I can handle it, but I am wondering about the responsibility of handling the money.  And of dealing with the politics involved.  Actually, there is going to be no dealing of that with me, I'm going to keep my mouth shut.  

Of course, since I started this post last week, and more exciting life has intervened during that time, I can't remember what I had to say.  Probably nothing that amounted to very much.  

I just really wanted to show these pictures of the snake.

I don't know what the deal is with these snakes.  The last one I saw was hanging out in the grape vine.  This one is hanging out by the mailbox, so when I get the mail.

!!!!

See his little head sticking out?

I had a moment with an entirely insane thought of poking him to see if his head would go into a better position.  I don't really mind snakes, I just don't like to find them under my feet. 

I was making homemade pancake syrup the other day, having washed and prepared jars and lids and filled them.  It wasn't until I tried to put a lid on THIS jar and it didn't fit that I realized it didn't have threads.  WHAT KIND OF A JAR IS THIS!

It looks just like half of my jelly jars.  I have no idea where it came from.  It looks just like a jar,  having a lip, under where the threads would be.  

Is it a vase?  Did flowers come in it during my treatment?  Did it ever have some kind of lid and come with food in it?  I have no idea, no memory of ever seeing this before.  It seems too nice to get rid of, so I put it in the cupboard.  It is now a glass.

Freshly canned homemade pancake syrup.

And what post of ordinary days would be complete without of photo of two young Bronco fans.  Not that I care anything about the Broncos, but their folks do.  I just love this.  

Big brother and little brother.