Homemade Oatmeal in the ozarks

(slobber-cycles)





We get a snow day today!


Funny thing in Missouri, as it's (hopefully) the only snow we get for another year or two...
Funny because school and work were called off, 2 hours before the first flake hit.


We do not know about snow graders here in the south...we do have hard-working salt trucks, that dust the maze of two lane highways, crisscrossing
the woods of the ozarks...but other than that? we just wait until it melts!



Unfortunatly, that usually means that the INSTANT the weather man has called the forcast...there is a retail rush, that can only be seconded only by the pre-hurricane plywood purchases.


I'm worn out and my brain is still wobbly, from the number of presciptions that we dealt out yesterday, to panicking women with overloaded shopping carts.

It's tough on retail workers, but it's just part of the prep...



We have to have groceries, bottled water ...in case the power goes out (wells have to have power to function) and the propane tank needs to be full (oh yes, there is no natural gas for heating in the woods...everyone keeps a tank on the property) and wood needs to be brought in, split, stacked, and covered so that it will be dry and easy to light, if you heat by wood stove. (most do)


Groceries are purchased by the aforementioned cartload. Although our
biggest snowfalls are usually less than 10 inches, and are melted away
in just one day...we still have to buy enough groceries to last us until spring, just in case. (temp forcast for monday are in the 60's)


Then, and only then do we stop. We all just stay home and take a break from the real world. We rediscovers our families.....we eat, read books, watch movies, take naps and have converstations...we stay in our jammie pants and slippers.

It is against the rules to interrupt this family peace with outside visits. The only exceptions being visitors who didn't prep, or who are all-electric. We do open our homes to anyone needing shelter....so much so that our little town still does not have public shelters available. There is no need. There are churches, and there are neighbors...and everyone is taken care of.



Snow days in the southern states are 24-hour
family retreats.....family respite care.

Little Bill called me from arkansas at about 7am
(BLASPHEME the RULES!! the RULES!!)...and i
answered the phone on the first ring with a hissing,
witchy voice...not even checking the CALLER ID...
"shhhhhh you'll wake the baby!"

Oh yea, the other great thing about snow days, is your
little "bundles of joy" are SUPPOSE to sleep in....giving mommy and
daddy that one hour of bonding time that is so elusive during
the school year, and the work week. I was a single mom
when we first started loving snow days...and am thrilled to
discover all sorts of new tradions to add to them :-)

So, I wasn't happy with the BRINGGGGGG of my telephone
exploding into my snuggly morning....and threatening the
peaceful snores coming from molly's bedroom.


My youngest son just laughs, says "my bad" and then????

I hear the squeal of joy come out of him...the same way it
would when he was little and finally saw the words
"west plains R-7" appear on the TV scrolling list of schools closed.


"I'm doing donutsssssss in the parking lot!!!"

In Fayetteville, Ark..where he lives.. 3 hours west and a little south of us...
he gets the weather we're going to get ....one hour prior!!


It's not the forcast reporting that's spilling out of
him this morning...it's that snow-day has always
been Bill's favorite holiday of the year!

Ok, you can phone early...but only if you can make me smile that big....

Even when we were in the Pottersville house, 100 years old
with only wood stove heat...(there was a tad bit more preparation
for snow days in THAT house!) it was an awesome holiday.
No matter how broke i was....there were new puzzles, TWO gallons
of milk,(for snow ice cream) a pot of beans on the stove, and corn
bread in the oven.....the boys had developed a special
method to harvest only the cleanest, newest snow for the annual
sno-cream treat.

Food, and the aroma of that food cooking, seem to be at the heart
of the whole deal.... and now, a new tradition......the aroma of a potfull of slow-cooked oatmeal is what you wake up to. (in the south, regardless of HOW many mouths are in your house, you only cook in measurements of 'a potfull' or a 'mess of' ie..."a mess of fried fish').

We added oatmeal the first year Molly was here, and with the first of
what became annual winter trips to the hospital...they hooked me.

Of everything you've ever experienced with hospital food....
they still take the blue ribbon with the morning oatmeal.

I'm not sure if it was the way it
tasted, or it's texture....or maybe it was the joy in
seeing my "failure-to-thrive' baby girl's steroid-induced
appetite dive into the magical mush...I gained a new appreciation
for oatmeal that first trip in.


This crisp morning, there was a big ole pot of long cooked,
brown sugared & buttered oatmeal on the stove when
she finally did wake up.

We'll get to it shortly...for now I'm taking advantage of watching and
sharing in her awe of our new white world....and passing on the traditions
that we've made with this precious non-holiday.

Future plans include a trip to Springfield with tomorrow's thaw....Gabe and Ally find out the sex of my new grandbaby at noon....IF the thaw happens...weather
man-bill has informed me of another 4-8 inches heading our way.

I cannot WAIT for the first time i get to steal the new one away
to grammy's house....for HER first snow day!

IT'S A GIRLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!




(snow ice cream)

welome from the ice house!

this, my friends, is green grass (needing a good rake job)
and each blade encased in ice. Sux, huh...we suffered a
freeze last april, that left everything nearly dead looking
all summer! Even the out of control rose bush yielded
just one, dead bloom.

welcome to the ice house!

last night was sooooooooooooooo scary!

It started to rain here, but it really never rained...moisture was pelting out of the sky, and just landing, wrapping, and freezing everything it touched, laying down about an inch of ice on EVERYTHING.

we listened as the road crews went out, chains on the back tires, and still ending up in the ditch....they called them all back in to put chains on the front, too. Here in Missouri, we really aren't prepared for stuff, especially stuff that moves in in less than an hour.


we listened as a woman called from her car...she wasn't sure where she was, but the nose of her car was pointing up, and she could see the airport light...green and coming by every 30 seconds or so. (she must have been a keeper, cuz at one point, she offered to put her headlights on bright, to help the search along!)
just driving along one second, and the next second...you're looking up at your headlights in the sky, and trying to remember the last roadmarker you saw!
Because it hit early evening, there were still alot of drivers out...but most of us knew that we need to grab some feed, and hi-tail it to the house!

molly has now been home for FIVE DAYS...starting with the onset of the ear/sinus infection (round 2) then the MLK holiday, and conveniently now tuesday! she's like me, though...you could lock us up here, forever, and we wouldn't run out of things to do...as long as there is power, anyway. This is some of the artwork she displayed for us, after she got bored and went hunting up some fun:




Yes that is permanent marker!!

If you look really close, you can see not ONE but TWO BIG OLE TEETH,
coming into the spot the ONE tooth she lost left! Can you say...
ORTHODONTIST??? $$$ ????


That was what kept me up all night...so worried about losing power....so much so that the sarge is checking into a propane generator...one we can hook up to the house. We have a smaller portable unit...and wouldn't have frozen, but it would have been a hassle to hook up.

I finally got up at 4am, and stumbled out to the livingroom...did a quick check of the tv to verify all the schools would be closed...padded back in to turn off all alarms...draw the blinds...gather a down pillow and blankey, and close the bedroom doors so that everyone could sleep in.

I climbed into THE most comfortable couch in the world, and was enjoying a deep...deep...sleep (my first of the night) when... BANG BANG BANG on the door...and "WOOF WOOF WOOOO-lemme-eat-the-visitor-OOOOOFS" german shepherd alarms going off loudly and fiercely...waking not only my house, but any house in a five mile radius!!it's the neigbor boys from a few acres away...they want to know if we missed the bus, too.

EEEEEEEEEEEEKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK

I don't think their mom will miss them for awhile, as she's the one who sent them to the bus....and the dogs are now happy and full.


The sun is out now, and last night is sure to quickly become a forgotten nightmare... and for posterity...the only real weather we've gotten this winter is some tornadoes (from our warm air) a light dusting of snow on the trampoline...and now...the INSTANT ICING! knock on wood....maybe this is the last of it!



here's wishing for a quick thaw and dry, as we're in for more cold tonight...and a HURRIED SPRING! (hope yall are staying safe and warm)

this is what it looked like, on the back deck...not really wet at all...just ice!




and a little closer...these almost were drops! stopped short and frozen:



and lastly? the little blue/orange bird...usually a sign of spring when they start
gathering to nest...this one though? He's just confused! Behind him is the bulk of the sunshine we had til noon...all haze...the black fog that will MESS YOU UP!

Please read and respond

my sis called me last night...she was making fun of me because at 9:40pm, on a saturday, her and hubby were just returning from a night out, and here i was in bed!!

she probably thinks im old and boring...a sad fact as she's 10 years my SENIOR!

Fact of the matter is, I took my precious baby with me last night to the bedroom, and we sang songs, and we talked, and i combed her hair with my fingers until she drifted off to sleep...

Beautiful baby.

i took this time with molly, because that very morning at 11:22am, a litle guy whose story i've been following, lost his battle with neuromedullablasphoma.

and I'm grieving.

King JuJu was all of 4 years old.

My husband is kinda confused and gently trying to get me off the computer (i keep returning to it and bawling my eyes out)...and i KNOW i have a long list that got put off yesterday...but i wanted to chat with yall for just a sec.

I know, i turn the channel when the starving babies come on TV....it's not out of disrespect, it just seems easier if i don't look at it.

I NEED you to look at this.
Did you know? Pediatric Cancer kills more of our babies annually than anything else?

ANYTHING ELSE!

Please take a second, and look at king juju's video...take a moment in your busy lives this week, and remember his family in prayer...and take more than a moment to love your children...or as juju's mom mimi says..
"go dance with your child"
she's such a wonderful woman. Throughout all of this she has remained stedfast...reminding us that on those days that you can't take ONE MORE SECOND of the noise and mess that our children can generate..

she'd give anything for just that one more second.

I'm leaving you with the video, and with some facts about pediatric cancer. Please do what you can. Donate money, donate time, donate love and prayers...and please join with me in begging for Peace and Comfort for this family, the kind that only God Himself can deliver.

We have to stop this cancer...we have to stop this NOW before it gets one of OUR children...and at the rate it attacks, that also is a very real fact.

Godspeed Little King Juju
your fight was not in vain





The response?
Wear Yellow on Thursday...and if you can, let go a yellow balloon in his honor!
and LEARN! Learn about pediatric cancer, and do SOMETHING!!

thanx,
e

Childhood Cancer Facts:

Childhood cancers are the 1 disease killer of children - more than asthma, cystic fibrosis, diabetes, and pediatric AIDS combined.

Childhood cancer is not a single disease, but rather many different types that fall into 12 major categories.

Common adult cancers are extremely rare in children, yet many cancers are almost exclusively found in children.

Childhood Cancers are cancers that primarily affect children, teens, and young adults. When cancer strikes children and young adults it affects them differently than it would an adult.

Attempts to detect childhood cancers at an earlier stage, when the disease would react more favorably to treatment, have largely failed. Young patients often have a more advanced stage of cancer when first diagnosed.

(Approximately 20% of adults with cancer show evidence the disease has spread, yet almost 80% of children show that the cancer has spread to distant sites at the time of diagnosis).

Cancer in childhood occurs regularly, randomly, and spares no ethnic group, socioeconomic class, or geographic region.

The cause of most childhood cancers are unknown and at present, cannot be prevented. (Most adult cancers result from lifestyle factors such as smoking, diet, occupation, and other exposure to cancer-causing agents).

One in every 330 Americans will develop cancer by the age of 20. On the average, 12,500 children and adolescents in the U.S. are diagnosed with cancer each year.

On the average, 1 in every 4 elementary school has a child with cancer. The average high school has two students who are a current or former cancer patient. In the U.S., about 46 children and adolescents are diagnosed with cancer every weekday.

While the cancer death rate has dropped more dramatically for children than for any other age group, 2,300 children and teenagers will die each year from cancer.

Childhood leukemia (making up the largest group of childhood cancers) was once a certain death sentence, but now can be cured almost 80% of the time.
Today, up to 75% of the children with cancer can be cured, yet, some forms of childhood cancers have proven so resistant to treatment that, in spite of research, a cure is illusive.

Several childhood cancers continue to have a very poor prognosis, including: brain stem tumors, metastatic sarcomas, relapsed acute lymphoblastic leukemia, and relapsed non-hodgkins lymphoma.

the rollercoaster of life

What a week!

No big upheavals, but i can't seem to get it together.
Like a post-holiday - pre-spring funk, everything is falling apart!

We're in the middle of a cold snap to boot, something southerners do NOT like! Cold here is somewhere between 35 and 45 degrees...and this morning it was FOUR!!

Got the pickup picked up from the mechanics..it had some weird fuel module out, and would just run out of gas spontaneously and periodically, even though BOTH tanks were full! Took them a week and a few hundred $$$ to diagnose THAT....

And yes, you've heard me whine about this since Christmas...the hi speed has been out for over a month now, and WILD BLUE is just NOW managing to find a technician to come to the house. At least he SAID he'd be here today...they've been saying that SINCE Christmas.

So we're snuggled in, today.

We had hoped to get to springfield and see my growing grandbaby, and give the kids a visit with Yeagar the wonder choc lab, whom i have temporary custody of...(he got too big for the apt...AND my house for that matter at a whopping NINETY POUNDS!) but Miss Molly has relapsed with the ear infection and congestion...and given the bitter cold outside and bad luck with vehicles, we thought it better to stay snuggled.

(on a side note, if you watch CNN today, you'll see Springfield! It's the home of the 7-11 clerk, who was being robbed...and took a broom to the robber! AAAhhhh yes, this is where i live, home of AMAZON WOMEN! hehehe YOU GO, GIRL!)

Yes, Molly AND daddy have both have been to the doctor this week..as well as both dogs!! (i think the puppy appt cost more) Sarge (german shep) has sprained his ankle, and yeagar has a yeast infection in his big floppy ears...common with the choc labs. (ew)

So I'm just gonna hide.

I did get to take a longggggg luxurious weekend soak, and was just rinsing, when we ran out of water!! EEK! Add a well-man to the list of visiting repairman today...

"Vos es los" (sp?)...something mama always said....
"Such is life."

This unending marathon of work/school/marriage/home/health...with a dash of break-downs, a sprinkle of trips to the doctor for added sparkle!

I'm trying to be patient..and trying to keep my eye on the positive.. I mean really, there is NO WAY i can clean the bathrooms or do the dishes with no water, RIGHT?

I do keep a supply of bottled on hand for coffee/expresso...made all of molly's juice earlier, just finished making a Biscuits &gravy saturday morning breakfast, AND did get my hair all rinsed out, before the flow slowed to a trickle...so ALL IS GOOD!

Another positive?? MOLLY IS POTTY TRAINED!! Now for you parents of typical children...i see those eyebrows raising...but those of us with kids like molly have discovered some things about our kids.

For one, they have really dull senses! I hate that adjective... but it's the only way to describe it.
Her favorite foods include foods that typically little ones would not eat...hot chili, salsa, orange anything..etc...they like to FEEL the food and the tastebuds need extra stimulation!
They never cry out in pain, unless there is a broken bone! Having such a high pain tolerance is NOT a good thing, either...we NEVER know how serious an injury is!

Hence the potty training. If you can't feel the sensation...you don't know you have to go!
As with all of her other achievements, this happened in ONE SECOND!
Last Friday night, we took her to the potty, for the millionth time...she resented it for the millionth time...
and then all of a sudden, the new sensations, the trips to the potty, all of it FELL INTO PLACE! and i saw the LIGHT COME ON in her eyes!

I knew the second i saw that look, that i could scratch 'pull-ups' off my shopping list. Something that's been ON my shopping list for SEVEN YEARS!! YAYYYYYYYY!! I think it will push us up into a new tax bracket!! YAYYYYYYY!

Sure enough, for the entire week (except when she succumbed to the sinus/ear infection) she has been running around here and at school, in big girl panties! I'm so proud of her!

Everyone is healthy, my new grandbaby has kicked his daddy in the face, and Gabe (daddy) has achieved a MOUNTAIN of accomplishments this week in his life. I am so proud of him!

Little Bill called with pre-tax-time panic in his voice..one of those rites of passage you hate to see your children move into, but on they go to learn all about the thrills of adulthood! He's still working hard, setting goals, and looking for property closer to mama! I'm so proud of him!

And as much repair as this week has brought us, we are healthy, we have the $$$ to pay for the repairs, the tahoe has one more payment and it's owned, and I'm still sticking to the diet, and have added a stepper to my possessions....
Now, to get it out of the box.

Hope yall are livin the life, and working hard. I'm SOOOO very much looking forward to a little vacation time, when i can travel and get to see some of you, and am anxiously awaiting SPRING!

Enjoy! and kiss the babies from aunty E!!

e

(prayers this week for elizabeth westberry...and the line

infections that are preventing her from moving to a

cancer free life!)

The Quiet after the Holiday Storm

it’s quiet


I'm on vacation...and the house is quiet. Even the sarge, who is ALWAYS on the move with this project or that...has been beaten into resting by a bug. (and the antihistab i slipped him & his runny nose)

Molly is busy with all of her new toys...amazing me with her 'mothering' tendancies, which Santa has enhanced by bringing new babies, diapers, bottles, high chairs...etc. We have no babies around here...where did she learn it?

I'm tired. I hate aging. We ran to KC yesterday to pick up kelsi for a holiday visit...and you would think i would have LITERALLY ran up there! The trip pooped me out, and i am a stumbling zombie today. At 11am, Kelsi is still sleeping. A typical 15 year old, she's a night owl and a day sleeper.

Housework is calling...I'm redoing the laundry room, which has been the 'ham-radio' room for the first 7 years...he finally moved out and into one of the bedrooms vacated by the grown children. There is alot of work to be done in there...part of the reason for the vacation...

but not yet....

I'm pooped.

I sit here thinking about what to write today, wanting to hide from my responsibilities, timestamp the holiday, and watch and marvel at my miss molly kate.

Now that is something i could do for a living...watching molly.

She's hillarious most of the time...studious...obsessive...and just generally entertaining! I thank the heavens daily, that she inherited my sense of humor. I see it sprouting from her every day.

I find myself studying her, and trying to figure her out. There's something there I'm missing...and it frustrates BOTH of us. There is a key to unlocking all that she is...all that she holds secret. She glances up from her project and gives me a look, like she's waiting for me to hurry up and figure it out!

She's as smart as a tack, for those of you reading this that DON'T have a child with DS....contrary to popular belief, our kids are very smart...they just find it amusing to hide that fact from the general population.

Currently she is switching from network television to a dvd. She carefully slips 'the wiggles' out of it's plastic case, examines it, blows on it, then promptly rubs it around and around and around on her shirt, to clean it before placing it in it's play-home, and starting it up.

Except, she doesnt ever wear clothes around the house, so the dvd was being rubbed on her belly!

Cracked me up, and explained alot! (why they are always sooooo smudgy!) My little minah bird...always watching, always storing information in her little computer/brain, to be used at a later time, when needed.

she is very appropriate...and mimicks and understands EVERYTHING done by adults, her main peers around here, more so than we're really aware of.

On Thanksgiving, when she ran through the kitchen...she didn't know I had just mopped up a spill... she hit the wet and landed with a thud on her back, the back of her head smacking the floor with thud 2!

No tears, no whining.......worse

GAWWWWWWWWD DAMMIT!!!

was the scream coming out of the kitchen...making mama suck air, and bringing the goofy grin to daddy's face....NOT FUNNY, LARRY!

she doesn't cuss often, and i didn't even know she KNEW both words...chaulking that one up to the losing season of the chiefs and the cardinals this year, and her heathen father/sports nut.

Always appropriate......the usage was articulated perfectly and used in the proper circumstance. It may not be PC...but i'll take it!

Always appropriate....

unless her house is invaded by a well-intention, real white-bearded, Santa, who only wants to enhance her Christmas experience.

She would accept the gifts, but she would not sit on his lap. She sat close to him, but kept a keen eye (really the 'stink-eye') on him...not the awestruck eyes we were going for.

She's very cautious with strangers, and i like that. The cardiologist may NOT reach down her pants to check the femoral artery pulse, and she doesn NOT sit on stranger's laps.

I like that about her.

Then there was Mike. He shoulda been a stranger...but molly saw past that. Mike was a customer of mine at the store. I'd known him for 20 years, but not really, until after knowing molly.

Mike was confined to a wheel chair. I'm not sure if it was polio, or cerebral palsey..or what...never asked, but i kind of avoided him a little, until he started talking to me about movies. John Wayne Movies.

He was obsessed with them...and there was our connection. Molly's obsessions include sponge bob...and no way is john wayne-sponge bob....but the obsession was the same. I could see it, and knew immediately how important it was for this man to have those movies.

I started ordering the hard-to-find VHS (could only be VHS) for him on ebay, and delivering them to him as soon as they came in...that involved a trip to his home, and molly accompanied me on these trips.

Molly and Mike hit it right off...she never wanted to LEAVE. He loved baseball, and when we were at his house, the cardinals would be on his TV, and molly would plop down, and be impossible to move out!

She didn't mind his 'different' way of speaking..or his twisted body...didn't even SEE it as far as i knew. She would take his favorite chair, sit in his wheel chair, and yes...she would sit on his lap.

Mike died mid-august of a damned infection that couldn't be stopped.

Mike's mom's spirit died with him. I'm trying to stay close, but she is inconsolable. Her whole life was dedicated to taking care of this special child, and now she is lost. I'm learning lessons here.

The last day i worked, she came in. She was carrying two huge Christmas gift bags. In one was the VCR i took to the care home...Molly lent it to him, so he could watch his movies while there.

The other was full of gifts for molly....i was aghast!

"Darlene! This was not necessary! I don't know what to say"

She explained to me, that Mike had been working on this bag all year...up until the time he got sick, and that it WAS very necessary for her to deliver it, and for molly to enjoy it!

That was the stranger that wasn't.

Molly knew.

Molly knew Mike was safe, and it was good to be friends with him. She shared her obsessions with him... She never stared at him. He was just mike, and he was very comfortable. He liked molly for just what she is...and i think he appreciated her for NOT staring, i think he appreciated the fact that she DIDN'T care...about things typical people care about. Her only concern was if Pujols had hit a homer yet, and if he was going to plug in one of those movies.

I'm gonna miss you mike. I'm sorry it took me so long to figure you out. I'm sorry your mom is hurting, and i'll do what i can.

I think molly already knows where you are....and will catch up with you later. She's easy like that...she doesn't like the goodbyes....but is patient until next time.

*************************************************

My wish for you is to have a day like i have today. One where you have the time to just sit and marvel at your children. One where you appreciate all that they are....remember, the laundry can wait.



Merry Christmas...and a Blessed Holiday Season to you all!

Early Thanksgiving Morn

Gobble Gobble
yummmmmmmm


my bird is cooking, and the way the house smells is exactly how you remember it smelling when you woke up so many years ago.

The Macy's Day parade is on the TV..and the 2nd pot of coffee is made.

I'm an early riser daily, but really early this day...I still feel the anticipation of a Holiday in the same way i did as a child except now?? Now, I love the giving more than the receiving.

I'm thankful for my warm house...the man that provides it, the baby, now seven years old.. who has never given up the habit of waking and making her way into our bed and snuggling up to her daddy.

I'm Thankful for the huge pit group in the livingroom. Although we do have a guest room, everyone opts to stay in the comfort of a couch that wraps you up in great sleep.

Currently, it is occupied by two young adults.

One of them I birthed, something that is hard to imagine when you look at his 6'4"- 250 pound- size 13 shoes wearing frame. He has a tattoo across his bicep, honoring those he loves and has lost, and a diamond earring that glints at me in the candlelight. An ironic mixture of youth and adulthood.

He snores, loudly, and as I'm gazing at him, the mommy takes over in me and makes a mental note to start naggin him about getting the obvious apnea looked at within the next few weeks, while the deductible is met.

Snuggled head to head to him...his woman. One of the additions to family that happen without the labor, but is just as precious.

She seems to be a little irritable in her sleep. Probably because of the snoring, and the fact that a dog keeps jumping up to join her...... but maybe, just maybe because of that other situation.

The baby. This woman/child who started out to be 'the girlfriend' currently houses my first grandbaby.

She's beautiful and they are going to handle this just fine...but I can't help but notice that in addition to diesel the dump dog...she also is sleeping with a teddy. The build-a-bear that her and gabe made in anticipation of parenthood.

*sigh*

My babies.

My baby is having a baby and this Thanksgiving has an ENTIRELY new and wonderful meaning for me.

The weather has been the same as my life. I drove downtown yesterday marveling at the 76 degree temp. and the beauty of the 100 year old trees brilliantly showing their fall colors as it can only happen in the ozarks.
In the background lies a huge ominous tornado cloud, spouting huge lightning bolts and their ensuing drumrolls.

A torrential rain began, and I watched it from the Tahoe, waiting for it to subside enough for me to run my errand. I waited a longgggg time but not with anxiousness. It was a calming break to a hectic work day. Rain is awesome.

As I drove back to work I shivered and took notice of newly formed chicken-skin, and had to hunt up the heater function of the truck. We rarely use it.

The temp had dropped to 54 in that 1/2 hour, and all those beautiful leaves were now floating down the white-water current that used to be the street....and the majestic trees that held them stand stark naked in the cold.

The temperature this Thanksgiving dawn is about 30 degrees and there are a few little snowflakes flurrying around in the crisp morning air.

Instant winter.
Instant family.
Life changes like that..in the blink of an eye.

It's easy to get bogged down with that fact, and mire in the changes we don't want to happen.
Sometimes they are cruely unfair.
Sometimes youth is stopped the second you experience your first death.
Sometimes adulthood begins the day you find out your pregnant
and most of us know how devistating and long-lasting the ravages of divorce.

But Today? Today we have been granted a fresh start. A chance to embrace change.

Enjoy every second you can.

Appreciate every leaf, every raindrop, every snowflake...and every change in your life.

That IS life....
The continuing miracle of Change.

Happy Thanksgiving

the big secret

I'm sooooooooooo happy! Ecstatic! Elated!

I got to spend a weekend with almost all of my kids...the WHOLE weekend, a three day stint.

Poor Shauna, who was a tad irritated because her tick is tocking now, and she again has to be the bridesmaid at someone else's wedding! It's always been a worry of her's...especially watching all of the kids in our small town marry and start their families, while she was still working away at school.

Her college girlfriend has been in the planning of this for 2 years, and even though there is NO WAY Ms Coleman, Attny at Law, should pull herself away from a pending case in D.C....she has to. She had committed to the honor 2 years ago, and she is just one of those people who still believe in commitment.

The wedding is full of activities and away in Springfield, where Gabe and Ally live and attend college. We pack up the pets and head for a long weekend of camping at their place and hopefully stealing any time that shauna has away from her obligations. It would be impossible to try and commute back and forth to our home which is over hours drive away.

My youngest son, Bill, is in Fayetteville, Arkansas, but has obligations of his own. He has to be in Little Rock for some continuing education to keep his license up to date. He is a bail-bondsman there. As much as we are going to miss him, we all understand work.

I'm very proud of Bill. He knows the value of that work, he knows how to save money, and he does the right thing no matter HOW much his mother nags him to do otherwise. It's amusing to me, that he, the baby, seems to be the one MOST independent of me.

I know Bill will attain any goal he sets for himself....he's my one that has just started this journey and has all the opportunites of the world at his feet. It is so much fun to watch him now....it's like watching an eagle take flight.
Gabriel is the first to offer whatever is needed in any situation. He is always the 'go-to guy' for everyone he knows. He makes his friends his family and his family his life.

He opened his home and insisted we stay there, continued to work while we were there, and maintained his life in SPITE of us being there.
That's Gabe...he has the biggest heart of any human on earth, and that heart is so tender, despite the massive soul that surrounds it...So much so, that deep down I know he will make the best daddy in the world.

The weekend was fabulous. Our time was limited but used wisely. We got to reconnect as a family and rekindle all that is that precious bond.
Ally and Shauna got to form some new bonds. They have really never got to spend extended time together and I witnessed my family growing again as they took the first steps towards sisterhood.

That's what I did the whole weekend. I watched my family and tried not to cry. I reflected on them as babies and marveled at the way they have become adults.
That happened one day while I was at work with some kind of magic I had heard about from older adults, but really didn't believe in. They all became adults when I wasn't looking.

I'm home today with just my little one, Molly Kate who is now 7. I thought I had just had her last week, I thought she was my 'empty nest' cure...but she's seven and quickly becoming her own person.

It is rumored that she is different than others her age....but then again, so were Shauna, Gabe, and Bill. They were all 'special' children. I have no doubts that Molly will grow into an amazing adult, as the three prefacing her did.
I don't know what she'll be when she grows up, but I know she will grow up in a large, loud, humorous, loving family....with many to guarantee her happiness and to give her counsel and wings.

I had the best weekend of my life last weekend, sitting in my jammies, in an apartment sated with noise and animals and laughter. We did not sleep. We napped when we needed to, but spent every second we could together.

Watching my family grow and bloom into amazing adults should be cosidered one of the wonders of the world, but instead is it's unsung phenomena...the big secret no one told me about....and surely the greatest miracle I will ever witness.