When In Doubt-Improvise

I love it when you have something you have put out in the shed that you bought because you thought you could use it at the other house, and then could not. And then you find a purpose for it. Necessity is the mother of invention.

These were covers for basement windows when most of the basement is underground. Son put two together and bolted them to make mini green houses for our plants until the threat of frost is past.

What Takes You Home Again?

As I lay here watching the Walton’s on TV, one of the characters, a neighbor wanted to go to the sea to celebrate her 55th anniversary. Her  husband was deceased and she wanted to go to all the places they went and John Boy took her to see the sea. As they stood there looking out to sea, she said “across the water is my home where I was born and raised” and you could see the yearning she had at 81 to go home again.

video by vossmeister

I thought about how “home” means different things to each of us. To some, like the woman above, home was where she had come from…across the ocean. A journey she made many years before and never saw her homeland again. To others, it is returning to the mountains or to their home town or back to the house they lived in, or the house they first set up housekeeping in or where their loved ones are buried or were born, or if they had their family heirlooms around them. For some, it was returning to a more peaceful and love filled time of childhood. And for some, it means going to heaven. Everyone has a different idea of what home is and there is no standard or right or wrong..

I thought about home for me and I realized that what is home to me is anywhere my loved ones are. It did not matter what house we were in, if we were in the motel like last year for 7 weeks waiting on this house or what. As long as my loved ones were around, that was and is home. I have realized that home for me centers around those I love and not the structure or the possessions in the house.I may be a little strange in that respect for home does seem to signify a dwelling and a place. The mountains may hold my heart but if my son were not here, it would not be home.

video by BRichards

As the woman was watching in the show, staring out to sea….she saw the ship that brought her and her husband to this country.  I think we all see in our minds eye a place of home and whatever home is to us….there deep in our hearts and minds.

Holidays always make us think of home and earlier holiday times. Sometimes we try to recapture that but you can’t ever go back and have it be the same.  People change as time goes by.  So many songs about holidays and home.  I can remember singing “I’ll Be Home For Christmas”  and tears on my face as I thought about all those overseas in the military who could not be home for the holidays.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYOvd2PZoPU

video by ChristmasTimeTV

We become nostalgic when we think about home and good memories and of course the memories are always romanticized and made even better than they really were because that is our memory of them and memories are not always accurate but oh can be so beautiful. We tend to filter out things that happened that were not pleasant in our memories…the fussing that might have happened or the sharp words because people were tired or any disappointments. That is the beauty of memories.

It makes me think of Shirley on Laverne and Shirley. She always saw things much more beautiful than it was and Laverne always accused her of being up in the sky with the balloons. But, that is how she chose to view the world and things that happened and it made her happy. We all have our own view of life, home and the world and it is how we cope with life.

video by Fallenshit

No matter what we see home as, it is some place special to us. It is a place we hold dear in our hearts and sometimes it is a place we can never return to except in our minds. What do you call home?  What do you carry in your heart and mind as home?  Do you ever wish you could go home again?

video by djpeC

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Oh Be Still My Heart

What a beautiful day!

Oh be still my heart. I decided to go into the kitchen to get some coffee and as always, went to the sliding glass door and peeked out to see if my birds were out there. The sun was so bright, I decided to ease open the patio door and look. When I did, I deer was standing there and suddenly burst past me rushing out of the fenced in yard and knocking the door against me. It startled me so badly that I almost fell off of my forearm crutches. And after I got over the shock, I was clapping my hands in glee.

Now, that is a sight worth getting up for.  I quickly looked back out the sliding glass doors and saw about ten deer trotting on off across the empty field behind us. Dang, where is the camera when you need it. I am not sure why this one was all the way up on the concrete patio but it sure was. The patio has a wooden fence and a gate so no escape there. I am just glad I was not letting Jack out to potty.

Nothing is more beautiful to me than seeing wildlife so close to home. . ..I think spring is finally starting here in the Rockies. I saw a robin yesterday. First one I have seen so far and a lot of new bird types. I want to feed the birds but don’t want to get the deer tempted and in trouble because some people will consider them pests so I only put a little out for the birds in the mornings once I know the deer have made their rounds through the streets.

I am real excited as my other son, his wife and my Sweetpea will be here on Monday afternoon. I have not seen them since 2006. Once we moved out here, I had so many health things and kidney surgery that I could not fly back to see them and son has had health issues and was dx with MS and so financially and health wise it was very hard for him to travel. Sweetpea has grown up on me and will be 12 this year. She looks 15 and that is scary to me. The way the clothing industry does, our little kids are dressed like mini adults. I can’t wait to put my hands on my son…it is a mama thing. We Mama’s know once we can see our children and lay our hands on them how they are and we are not happy until we do. My son is a lot like me….he will tell you he is fine when his pain is screaming or the exhaustion is tearing him down.

I admire that he keeps working and does not try to live off of the government. That is a topic for another day. It is one of my pet peeves…the way our system allows those that are not truly 100 percent disabled to get disability and how many are scamming the government and taking the money. One man just got caught but for all these years he had pretended he could not remember or understand things people said and had been on a mental disability. That will stay in your records forever and now that he and his family are caught, they must pay all the money back and face prison. Family turned them in. Yea rah for honest family. The day will come when son no longer can work…but for now he chooses to keep going. Because of his health, he does more office stuff now instead of out there jumping up on the portable buildings being built….but he still works.

Son here has worked hard spiffying up the place. He wants it to give a good impression. I told him not to stress himself. What he has done since we moved in is amazing and getting it all done that we want will take time. He is excited that they are coming too. He and his brother were always so close. When son here was about four, his brother back east was a baby crawling on the floor. The son back east called his older brother “Bubba” and if Bubba fell and hurt himself, he would crawl towards hims crying  “bubba….bubba’..and crawl up on him and pat him. It was so sweet. I kept a diary written to each of my sons as they grew up and it is so cool to go back and read them.

And now, son has my heart racing again. I was so busy typing I did not notice him walk by my door until I saw the light brighten where he opened the patio door to let Jack out. I told him always look all around now before letting him out. Deer are beautiful animals but they are also wild animals and I don’t want one attacking Jack because he scared them for Wonder Dog would defend his yard.

And now, I am going to quietly sip my coffee here and just lean back here and let my racing heart calm down. What an exciting start to the day for me.

An Insulating and Dream Filled Day

The Weatherization people came to blow insulation in and to wrap the hot water heater and do things under the house. We should be snug as a bug now. I think we have 14 inches of insulation in the ceiling of the house. LOL

Just a few pictures taken today:

This guy stood in the back of the truck feeding all of those bundles of insulation into the machine to be blown in to the ceiling.

Son stood up there watching. They went through all the Vent things on the roof.

They also went under the house, brought us a stack of florescent bulbs, checked the thermostats, the fire alarms and the Carbon Monoxide Alarms. And then they came in and went into my close and insulated our hot water heater. That ought to save a bundle.

This should help us in the summer too with the air conditioning and keeping the house cooler for my breathing in hot weather. We are so blessed. The Creator has certainly blessed us this past year and I am thankful for all.

Now, moving on to a different subject. A HUGE THANK YOU to friend of mine. I got a package today. She knows how my dreams are and what they mean to me. I received this in the mail today from her:

This side above says “Never give up on your dreams”

And the side below says “do it for you”

this is embossed on an old coin. It brought tears to my eyes and all I can say is..thank you friend…thank you from my heart. Many hugs and much love. I am so blessed by the friends I have in my life. And for the friends who remind me to keep on dreaming for that keeps us going.

 

Remember the Fuller Brush Man?

What a walk down memory lane…the Fuller Brush Man.  I can remember all of us excitedly waiting on him to come. He always gave us little tiny samples, usually these little bitty lipsticks that were about an inch high. It kept us kids occupied while my mother looked through the items he had. This was the place that so many bought their cleaning supplies and especially those brushes. There was nothing like the Fuller Brush brushes.

image from shopwynns.com

This was the era where salesmen went door to door. Today we are a less trusting people and it makes us nervous to let strangers in our doors. I remember the vacuum salesmen like the Kirby Vacuum Cleaner,

image from mamadweeb.com

the Encyclopaedia Britannica salesmen, and lets not forget the man with the pony, who went door to door taking pictures of the children on the pony. There is a picture of me on one with my sisters somewhere.

image from reminisce.com

But, back to the Fuller Brush Man. I think he became so popular because it gave the women a chance to buy when they were mostly at home with the children. And he was quite good at selling.  My mother would sit and look at all the items and he would demonstrate their uses. We kids sat watching. It was like a show to us. And the products were really good.

image from cemetarian.com

They were not just about brushes though I think that is what the business first started as. By the time the fifties came, they had all sorts of products from makeup to decorating things like the pretty brush box to clean your dinner table.

image from http://www.etsy.com

I think this was almost as good as the rolling store that my grandmother used to talk about. The only thing lacking was food. They always had samples of things so that you could try a product and these samples ranged from makeup to cleaning polishes.

image from iantiqueonline.ning.com

other products from the Fuller Brush Company:

image from etsy.com

As you can tell, they played to the women and it was a time women really loved having the Fuller Brush Man come in and demonstrate all the products and then the women taking their household money and buying things.  Eventually women went on to become Fuller Brush Women.

I love the cobalt blue jars used back then. They are so pretty in a sunny window.

image from artskooldamage.blogspot.com

They carried so many different products. Remember the tooth powder?

image from www2.metrodaycare.com

A time gone by…..the Fuller Brush Man days. And a time I will always remember. It was almost like having Christmas and he became like part of the family. I think we had the same salesman all of my childhood years and so you were very trusting with him. We would watch for him coming down the street lugging his bag with him and all the kids would skip by him as he walked to the houses. Sometimes, progress seems to take away something that was so nice.

image from phoenix.backpage.com

Values or Fame? I Choose Values

“Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value.”

Albert Einstein

 I love this quote for it says what I believe so well.  Too many people go after fame, fortune..success and somewhere along the line, morals…values ..get lost. We have all seen it in everything from the ministry business where te$evangelists are convicted of fraud to big businesses and financial business like the Ponzi schemes.

So, what happens along the way? Does the attention, the fame, the glory and all the money change people and turn them into something they were not?  I think so. I think we are all capable of being swayed by these things….some of us easier than others.

I would rather be a person known for my honesty, my values, my morals, my compassion and kindness for others….than be known as the Owner of some big business or financial endeavor. To me, when all that is important is the money and the fame…you have sold your soul to the devil.

I also prefer to be around people who are people of value. I have learned through my many years….yeah yeah..some older than dirt wisdom here…that the people you hang around with are those that reflect your values and morals. What is that old saying  “birds of a feather ..flock together”.

I can remember running with the wrong crowd and I never felt like I fit in but it was the “IN” crowd so it must be good. I was friends with the leaders…that made me special ..right?  WRONG. It just made me look like someone whose values were less than I wanted mine to be. And one day, I asked myself why it was so important to be buddies with the leaders of these things. You know that kinda wanting to be the teacher’s pet. They are just people and in fact they were people who did not have the morals I did. And so, I started looking for those that did. And now, I am content and don’t feel like I have to compromise my own morals by agreeing with someone who wants to do things that are not right. And being silent with these people is looked at as agreeing. You may not agree but if you don’t stand up for what is right,  you are just as bad as the ones doing it.

Yesterday, I watched a video of EMT’s rescuing and saving this dog who had fallen in a frozen pond. I heard some people say “I sure don’t want them being my EMT. Look at them taking care of that dog in the ambulance”.   I was impressed with these EMT’s. They are men of value….they did what was right against what some may say. They were not doing it for fame and fortune but to help a living being in trouble. I was so impressed that I can say that I would want these EMT’s to be taking care of me. These are the ones I would wish would be there to get me in an emergency. I watched them working over that dog and the man telling him “hang in there buddy. we got you. hang in there” and I could hear them saying that to me in a crisis. These are men with honor, dignity, compassion and most of all …VALUES.

video by woodcutin101

Right now, we live in a world where kids are being given the example of doing anything stupid just to get on television and make money. They don’t want to go to school, learn a trade or anything. They just want to be on these shows which have the worst values I have ever seen. And so, it was more than nice to see these NY Firefighters showing such values and helping an animal in need. I hope that we see more and more people following their example and doing what is right.

When we just sit back and let things happen…be it an animal in trouble, abuse of children, animals, the elderly, someone taking advantage of people, someone stealing, someone endangering others…no matter what it is..then we are just as bad as the ones doing it. Living with honor and morals an values also means being brave and standing up for what is right.

The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don’t do anything about it.

~ Albert Einstein

My Ride Yesterday

I can not begin to tell you what it did for my inner soul to ride out into the country and see the land and my mountains. As you can see from the pictures, we are very close to the mountains and they rise up around our little town.

As you can see, we are at the mountains. If you go straight up this street to outskirts of town..about a mile..and turn left and right where you see those mountains…we live.

Now, some outside pictures from my ride yesterday. Hope you enjoy.  This is starting into the open range…where the animals run free. 

This is how much of the mountains I see from my doorstep.

And moving on with my ride.

I love how the ranches out here use the old wagon wheels for their fences.

And one of the dogs we saw. He was so cute. He could have jumped that fence at any time but didn’t. He would just prop up and watch you.

One of the things I love here is the diversity. We live on the west side and are close to the mountains…my beautiful mountains. But as you see, going out on the plain which is east of us puts you further away from the mountains.  And the weather is contingent on which side of town you live on. LOL  We are on the “get lots of snow side”  and the plains get blown so much they don’t get as much.  What you see is from the last snow and we got maybe three to four inches but on the plains it is varied depending on where their homes are.

From The Heart Of Man

As I sat watching a movie one night about a family in the 1800′s that was struggling to keep their farm going, I heard one of the characters say, as he looked lovingly at the land…”you know, history comes from the heart of man”.  That thought really got me to thinking. It is what is in the heart of a person that brings about history. If our forefathers had not had it in their hearts to come to a new world and build a new home, we would not be here. If the colonists had not had it in their heart the desire to be free, we would still be colonies of England, not our own country. That is history.

I love small town America. No matter where I have lived…what small town I have lived in..I look around and see history everywhere. It is in large town too but the crowded way of life in a large town keeps us from seeing it. When we lived back east and in this town we are in now, I look around and think my gosh this place is fragrant with history. Just as a gardenia or wisteria vine floats its own scent through the air, the history permeates the air like tiny droplets of moisture in a fog.

When I first looked around the town and saw the faded advertising on the sides of the buildings, I could instantly visualize horses and buggies slowly meandering down the streets, signs of a time gone by. As I listened to the stories the old ones told in the different places I lived, I heard stories of rolling stores, tobacco sale days, five cent Saturday matinees in town, the old train coming through town and people standing waiting on passengers to disembark, the ranches and times that make you think of Bonanza, mining stories and on and on.

A friend told me once about when she was little and the rolling store came around. She said when she saw the rolling store approaching, she would run to gather eggs to trade with the man so that she could buy pretty ribbons for her hair or go to the matinee with her father. I am not sure we would know how to act if all we had was a rolling store. One thing for sure, we would not be smothered with all the choices in the stores today. Sometimes I think if we had fewer choices, our money might go further. I personally don’t need ten brands of oatmeal or other products.

When I look down the main street and see the word “Antiques” on the store fronts, I want to go up with a marker and write “History”.  As I look at these stores, I realize that the people running them have the same dream, from their heart they want to make this town go. From the heart of a person comes history and we learn from history.

Ride around one day and look at your town. Look at the architecture and see the history. Historical Societies try to preserve all the historical buildings they can. We lived in one little town and as you drove down the main street of housing off the main street of town, you will see the architecture change from one period of time to another. We lived in a little southern town and driving down the street of houses was a trip spanning architecture from the Civil war, reminiscent of Gone with the Wind on to the Spanish influences with stucco and clay shingles to homes with large veranda to modern-day homes. All of these homes were built from the heart of someone. They would not be here if someone had not had it in their heart to make a home there and build their home with love and care. Unfortunately, you don’t see people treasuring homes anymore. It is just a transition of buying bigger and better over and over with so many. The heart of the house is lost on many.

Take an afternoon ride one day in the country. Look at the old churches and cemeteries. Buildings and tombstones bear the mark of people..real people from another time who were once par of the mainstay of where you live. From the heart of man came history. If those people had not felt in their hearts that this was the place to make home, some towns might never have existed.

From the heart of man comes history. You can see it in all the old cemeteries. People that lived their lives, had children, raised crops, ran businesses and fought for our freedom. And some people are still fighting for our freedom and are continuing to make history. I wonder what will come from the heart of man who will make history for our children and grandchildren?  What will come from your heart that will one day be history?

Where Is The Instruction Manual?

Another article I wrote. Thanks to son for posting.

Where Is The Instruction Manual?

It seems that everything we get today comes with an instruction manual. There are operating instructions, care instructions, repair instructions, and even storage instructions. But, it seems the most important thing we have in life comes with no instruction manual at all.

I am talking about our children. Oh, sure, there are child-rearing books that tell us when our children should do this or that activity or how to nurse the child. I am talking about an instruction manual for those incidents that happen out of the blue that are not necessarily life or death situations but can and do give us a panic attack.

If I were writing a manual, I would want it to include such things as  little medical emergency information on what to do when my child sticks a bean or a stone up his nose or in an ear. Or what to do with the child that is determined to eat the cheese off the mouse trap.

There are those little bathroom emergencies that include the child who flushes everything from a rubber duck to a bag of dried beans down the toilet. Or , the child that won’t let you flush the toilet after they use it. Not life threatening, but they certainly do need a solution.

Then  comes the stripper child who is forever sitting on the commode and removes all their clothing and comes streaking out into the room where company is.  Or what about the child who likes to remove his own dirty diaper or smear excrement all over the wall?  What about the child that yells “Mommy, come wipe me”  while the preacher is visiting?

And then there is the mechanical child, who removes all the hinges off the kitchen cabinets. You know, the ones with the child locks on them. Or better yet, the child who takes his father’s brand new screw drivers and hammers them all into the ground in a neat row because he likes the green shiny tops showing. Of course they are not found until spring comes.  I would want a chapter on this too.

And what about the child that thinks they are a beautician?  You know, the one that cuts their own hair and leaves bald spots. Or cuts their siblings hair because they think they are a beautician. The warning signs on this is the dolls with all the hair cut off.  And then we are afraid to take our child out in public for fear of being accused of abuse. This section should include the child who loves Mommy’s makeup and puts it on them, on the dolls, on the walls and on each other.

And on what page would I find advice on how to handle the child that is smart enough to outsmart you even when they are only three? For example, you put a platter of muffins on the coffee table for company. As you head back into the kitchen for the rest of the food and the coffee, you warn your child to not lay one finger on those muffins. You return to find your child with his hands clasped behind his back, leaning over and biting the tops off all the muffins. Now, he did what you said, so how do you handle that, besides going around the corner and laughing til you cry.

Or better yet, what do you do with the child who repeats things with people around that embarrass you to pieces. For example, the child that is listening to you talk with an adult about a movie with a handsome star in it and right in the middle of the conversation, your child pipes in “mama says he can park his boots under her bed any time”.  And you are left trying to figure out when that child heard you say that for they were supposed to be in bed.

And last–but not least, there is the climber child. The one that opens all the drawers on the lower cabinets to resemble stairs and crawls right up on the counter and then pulls a canister over and uses it for a step and is found sitting up on top of the refrigerator holding the cookie jar. We would need advice on that too.

Although none of these things are life threatening, they can certainly be nerve-wracking for parents, especially new parents. So, where is our instruction manual?  They say we learn with the first child, but I am here to tell you that after two sons and a granddaughter, that no matter which child puts a bean up their nose, I still don’t know what to do.

Dare To Dream

Am still sick but my words to all…after saying Happy New year are…..DARE TO DREAM.  Sometimes we can get so caught up in the rutt of life that we lose that joy and spontaneous way about life and it is then we need to shake the dust off our dreams and work for them. They won’t happen if we don’t get out there and work to make them happen.

This past 8 months of blogging has been about our dream to sell the house and move over the mountain and live in a country setting. The buckboard landed in small town USA and we love it. We are on the outskirts of town…takes ten minutes to go across town and people are laid back and easy-going here.

We are still dreaming as we continue to work on our home, on the things we want to achieve and on surviving the health issues. But dream we do. We made it to the base of my mountains and the dreams are still coming and are still coming true….and so can yours.

We hope you have enjoyed the blog and if you have….that you will subscribe and join us daily. It is about the daily life as we work towards our dreams, middle of the night ramblings on life itself, a little humor thrown in and all wrapped up in dreams. Have you found your mountains yet?  Maybe they are the beach, or a new home, or a new vehicle, or a family and kids, or to go to school…or maybe as simple as a purple cashmere sweater like Laverne on Laverne and Shirley. Whatever the dream is…get out there and work it…for it won’t come true if you don’t.