Sunrise and Socks

Another week has gone by and I am feeling the desire to blog.  

I really like the part about sitting down.

I don't think it would be very convenient to blog standing up, unless you had one of those tall bar things, which I don't.  

ANYWAY,

I've had a busy week.  Of course, I have no clue what I did Friday because it's been five days already.  I could get up and look at my calendar or my 'to-do' list in my binder but then I wouldn't be sitting down anymore.  I don't have very many pictures either.  I tried to take sunrise photos with each of my three cameras and if I didn't get the color right, I got fuzz, so I gave up and went looking for an earlier photo to put in my '52 lists' journal.  

(The list for that week was beautiful things)

Maybe I did that on Friday.  

(Checking on the computer here....)

Nope, Wednesday and here it is.

I guess one of them turned out.  I wonder which camera it was.

We've had some really gorgeous days so I decided it was time to sweep the leaves off the deck and the patio and retire most of the flowers on the deck.  It took me two hours to sweep, gather and dump  leaves, and dump dirt from the flower pots. I also hung out a load of sheets and cut down the morning glory vine.  

I was SO tired the rest of the day I didn't do much of anything except I persuaded Jim to walk around our circle at dusk. I can't decide whether I need to do more work to gain more strength, eat more carefully, or resign myself to the fact that I'm not up to what I used to be.  

  My walking has improved, I can walk a mile in good time without feeling like I'm going to die coming up our last little hill.  I sure can't swing out in full speed like I could once upon a time. I go lickity-split for a little way and then it has to be slow and steady.  

So, to put the 'let's work more and see what happens' to the test, I made a batch of tomato soup on Monday.  I got 19 pints, but since the canner holds 9 at a time so we ate the 19th for supper.  

Or part of it anyway.  I cooked up some hamburger and using a small amount of tomato soup and a half pound of hamburger I made a huge amount of Bean Burger Bake, which isn't baked at all even though mom's recipe says to and she never did and I don't either.

We ate half of it on Tuesday and we are going to eat the other half tomorrow.  

I was so glad to have it ready to eat for supper on Tuesday since it was a VERY LONG DAY.  Leaving at 6:30 in the morning isn't a real hardship since I'm a morning person.

(At 9:00 at night the future looks very bleak, but at 6:00 am, I'm ready to conquer the world.)

Lorene had something extra going on so I was prepared for a little longer day, however, at 2:50 it hit me, "When does Zane get out of school? If it's 3:00, we need to get moving."  After a hurried call and finding we had until 3:30 and she would be home in time, I relaxed until I got a text at 3:14, "I won't be there after all."  I went into high gear, and "okay, boys, shoes on, let's go, chop, chop".  It only takes two minutes to drive to the school but on any given day I have boys who routinely disappear, or won't put on their socks, can't find their shoes, have no idea where they possibly could be or have a tantrum instead of getting ready to walk out the door, so extra time in a good thing.  

I hardly finished my pronouncement and there were two boys on the floor getting shoes on, (we didn't worry about socks), and they are ready to go out the door in two minutes.  Hmm, 3:16 and school doesn't get out until 3:30.

"Can we bring our tablets?","Yes."  We arrive at school at 3:20, (I drove slowly).  Christian's table ran out of battery (is that the right term in the 21st century) so I gave him my phone to take pictures.  I now have about 25 photos of his feet.  

At 3:35, Zane came cheerfully out of school and loaded up, we went home and Lorene was there!

I gathered up my stuff in a hurry and left.  

4:00, in Kearney, still had some errands to do and a little shopping.  At 5, I drove into my garage, dumped all my stuff on the table, and collapsed on the sofa with a bowl of ice cream.  When Jim came in and hour later I was still there with no desire to get up, so he mowed, and I felt sufficiently motivated to heat up said Bean Burger whatever and went to bed, after cleaning up all dirty dishes, pouring boiling water down the sinks, and then vinegar in hopes of reducing the fruit fly population.  

I'm not sure it's helping since there was a cloud above the sink again. I washed with great diligence all the counters, got rid of all wet cloths, took out the trash, dried all the extra dishes and am preparing my boiling water for this evening's attempt.  

Tomorrow, I'm thinking about more tomato soup, or Friday, or sometime.  

Looks like my kids didn't like socks either. 

I never could get Lorene to keep shoes on her feet, so I finally said, "If you are going to run around without shoes, take off your socks!!"  She didn't die even if she was out in all weathers unshod. 

The only other photos I took this week are of Christian.  I was going for a really happy smile, but I had to settle for these half smiles instead.  I intended to get some of Barry, but about then he came up with a grasshopper in the BBQ tongs, and I was ready to go inside.  

Until next week then.  

Old Stories

I could say we are one-sixth done with the year but keeping that up will soon get depressing.  I have been spending the last half of the month sorting through all the doubles of the photographs I've saved from the days we took film in to be developed and received back again negatives and two of each photo. 

I also sorted through a bunch of old photos from my childhood, discarding the bad ones and some there were too many of, sorting many that need new homes, and finding in them some more projects for me.  

I've been viewing photos, not taking them.  One of the things I ran across was this little book with proofs of some of my earliest photos.  

These were taken one month before I was a year old.  

The book I found them in was, well...

just plumb cute 

and held together by a red metal binder thingy.

These were taken back in the days when a photographer would set up shop in JC Penney's and everyone would come get photos of their kids.   

There wouldn't be any specific "one year" photos, you got photos when the photographer was there. 

The order form is interesting, especially the prices.

And here I am...

The first photo of the next group is the one that I've seen around.  I don't have it, I hope Mom still does. 

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

There is a story behind every picture, so I looked up the origin of the phrase that is the title of this post, and gist of the matter, is that you can use a picture to tell a story rather than the words. 

Well, I like words, and these pictures have a story.  The first part of the story is that they are all found together with hundreds of other pictures in my "doubles and extras" box.  Those are the photos that would be used when a kid needed one for a school project or something.  They don't happen so much anymore now that digital photography has taken over the world.  One can choose the photos printed or not print them at all, instead of printing doubles of all 36 photos of the 35mm roll that resided inside the camera in long or short periods of time. 

Grandpa Kleeb

Jim's dad lived with us for three years when the kids were little.  Lynette was almost one, when it was decided by the powers that be that he couldn't live on his own anymore.  So, he came to live in our chaos until he needed more care and spent over 5 years in the nursing home, increasingly succumbing to Alzheimer's, until he didn't know anything anymore.  It is very sad to watch a relative living in that condition, and hard to understand what lessons we might be learning in watching another suffer. 

Jim's dad was 91 when he died in the summer of 2005.  It was one of the hottest summers we had for a few years, and Jim's sisters came to be with their dad until the end.  It was pneumonia at the last. It's what used to be called the "old man's friend."

And, while we were sorry Jim's dad had died, it isn't so hard because he lived a long, full, productive life.

So, on to the funeral.  Jim had to have new boots, his Sunday ones being all worn out.  And I bought a new pair of shoes.  I wanted something that didn't look like they came over on the Mayflower.  I love those shoes, and I still remember why I bought them.  They are just a little bit too big, so I have to wear inserts.  My feet were swollen because of the heat. It was SO hot.  It was at least 110 degrees. Wearing funeral clothes and all, you just deal with it, because there isn't anything else to do.

And Nathan had to have a haircut.  We were having a hard time finding someone who would cut his hair so that both he and I would like it.  And who would do it for less than $20.  This wasn't it. 

But, here we all are, gathered for our yearly family photo. It's where family gathers.  

It's a time when the family you don't see very often can get together, to comfort and remember. 

And take pictures. 

We don't have so many of the "three kids together".

Pictures will be taken at funerals.  They always have, and they always will.  It is a gathering time.

Friends--for Now, Forever.

I don't remember when this photo was taken.  In the early 2000s I assume, because Luanne hadn't been living in her "out in the country" home for very long.  This was a ladies only outing.  I don't remember exactly the occasion or the date.  What I remember is that these are my friends.  Some I know well, some I don't.  Some I've know for a very long time.  Some for not so long.  We would look different now, all lined up together.  But, this is the way we looked that day.  And we enjoyed it.

My Cousin

My cousin Michelle was the first of our cousins to leave this life.  It is hard to say "the first one who died." But, she was.  She LIVED her life.  She did a lot of things.  But, she didn't win her battle with cancer.  It's been 2 years and I still cry. 

My mother's side of the family seems very healthy and especially long lived.  We've taken that for granted over the years.  I've always thought belonging to the Appleman's was something very special, and I felt sorry for the people that didn't belong to my Grandpa and Grandma.  Grandpa died the same year Jim's dad died, 2005, two months to the day, shy of being 100 years old, He'd had skin cancer surgery, but didn't make it through. Two years later Grandma died.  This photo was taken at her funeral.  Michelle was between cancer treatments and was feeling really good.  Her hair had grown in for several months and she was beautiful and full of life.  But, there was a dark spot in there, one that we weren't really looking at.  Those numbers, that tell somehow in blood work, that there is probably cancer there, were going up.  We had no way of really knowing that the next funeral would be hers. They sang my favorite hymn there, the whole congregation:
"Precious thought, my Father knoweth, In His love I rest, For whate'er my Father doeth, Must be always best.  Well I know the heart that planneth, Naught but good for me, Joy and sorrow interwoven, Love in all I see.  Precious thought, my Father knoweth, Careth for His child, Biddeth me to nestle closer, When the storm beats wild. Though my earthly hopes be shattered, And the teardrops fall. Yet he is himself my solace, Yea, my All in all!"

My Little Girl

I just think Lynette is cute here.  We always took our nicest clothes when we went visiting anywhere.  We wouldn't want people to think we just wore any old thing.  It sure seems like when the kids have a lot of choice, it wouldn't be mine.  I'm also guilty of saving too many things for "good", and then they don't get worn.  Lynette is on the play set of the elementary school where I went to school.  Only, they didn't have any fancy play sets, 30 some years ago.  Now the school is abandoned, and a new school is built.  So, someday, that school will likely be torn down.  What sort of use would a large two story building be used for.  It had too many problems to fix for school children.  It will have too many problems for anything else, too.

My Son

I love this photo. And his dad loves it too.  Every dad hopes his son will one day follow in his footsteps.  So, Jim was especially pleased to watch Nathan take to the excavator like a pro.  It seems to be one of those things, that comes easily, or it doesn't come at all. I can't remember what we needed the hole for.  Perhaps we only needed it for Nathan to learn to dig.

Matching Dresses

These are some of my favorite photos of all time.  Lynette's sewing Auntie, did the smocking for these dresses, and I sewed them up.  I was going through a spell of whatever I made for Lynette, I made one for her dolly, too.  We went out to some of our friends in the country who had a picturesque setting for the photos, and made ourselves at home.  (They weren't.)