Thursday, May 19, 2011

BLESSINGS


Blessings come from strange things.  Don’t you agree?  Sometimes I find I am being blessed and had not even noticed it.  That is not good.

I enjoy doing solitary things.  Maybe because I grew us as an only child.  James never looked forward to being at home.  Home is where he was when he did not have other entertainments.  We would go to the valley for a few weeks after Christmas to square dance.  It was fine, okay; I enjoyed it.  We would square dance and round dance from one to three times a day.  And I enjoyed it; but it also meant that I was not at home working in my flower beds (and later my garden).  When he would mention retiring and trailering full time, my heart would sink.  No gardening, difficult oil painting – not a lot of room.  Difficult sewing, also not enough room.  I envisioned driving for miles and miles.  Staying at campgrounds and having covered dish dinners with strangers.  Just how many covered dishes was I going to enjoy cooking and cleaning up after?  Oh, woe is me – or so I thought. 

Well I am certainly not happy that he got sick – never that.  But now he is most comfortable being at home.  He is agreeable to my dragging him off places but he would prefer being at home.  We eat lunch out everyday and at lunch he will ask two or three times where we are going from there.  He is always relived when we are going home.  If we go to the grocery store or somewhere else, he sits in the car and listens to the radio.  (I always wonder if this is the time I will come back to find him and the car gone.  So far that has not happened.)  He takes a nap in the morning and a long nap in the afternoon.  The Alzheimer’s specialists say that is usual; when they get those “tangles” in the brain, they require more sleep.

So I have done more painting in the last few months than I have since he worked and was gone out of town half the time and I did art shows.  I can work in the yard whenever I want to.  I have a place fixed up in the basement with grow lights and raise most of my own seedlings.  I also sew.  For a few years I made reenactment costumes and bonnets and sold them on ebay.  When the economy took a downturn, I was not selling as much so I gave that up.

As I say, I am sorry he is sick but I am more free to do my own thing than I ever expected to be.  It took me a long time to realize what a blessing this is.  I am sure I have been blessed many times in life and never noticed it.  Isn’t that a shame.

Sunday, May 15, 2011

SOCIAL GRACES AND UN-GRACES


THE SOCIAL GRACES OR UNGRACES

People are very tolerant.  Thank goodness. 

We went to lunch with another couple the other day.  Her husband has had a stroke and so is not the charming, gracious, gallant man we have always known. 

Between James and him things can be interesting.  Her husband was telling about some moth holes that got into their sofa while it was in storage.  He said the moth balls must have been castrated and therefore did not keep the moths away.  The people in the booth next to us really enjoyed the story.  When we got ready to order, there was a sign on the wall with the daily specials written on it.  James asked the waitress if she would step back a step or two that there was a part of her anatomy covering the menu.  My mouth dropped open; I looked at Janet and her mouth was quivering, trying to keep from laughing.

As I say, people are tolerant.



Wednesday, May 4, 2011

BIG SURPRISE



Yesterday our daughter came down to spend the day with James and I went running around with friends.  Missy and James had lunch at the tea room.  When lunch time came the friends and I went to the tea room also.  When we walked in, Donna, the waitress, saw me and her jaw dropped and she just stared at me.  Donna told us later that her thought was, “Here she comes and he is here with another woman”.   I went back to their table to say hello and introduced Donna to our daughter.  She was so relived and told us what she had thought.    We loved it.  I also love living in a small town; that could never have happened in Dallas.  Never a dull moment. 

One day a month Missy spends the day with James so I can have a day off.  And one day a month our daughter-in-law spends the day with him so I can get away.  They came up with this plan and announced it to me.  There is no better blessing than good, loving children.