Tuesday, July 21, 2009

What shall I post about?

Summer daze... I have been reading on several of my favorite blogs about blogger's block! I think that's funny since I have also felt a bit "blocked" lately. I have stuff to post about, but sometimes it just isn't all that upbeat, if you get the hint! I love this wreath on my door, and it has inspired me to get some paint next time I'm in town and do a makeover on the door to my room. Mom gave me the okay... which is always nice. Although, there was a time, as that commercial goes, when I was undisputed queen of my castle, and I wouldn't have had to ask permission of anyone! Is it all that important to be queen? Nah.. not really. Does it sometimes feel like it? Yeah, I admit. Some days I want to rip out curtains, paint over paneling, tear every single cupboard out and reorganize... I did this often at home, and more often than not, I didn't love the changes I'd made... but it was always a work in progress, a labor of love.
Mom received this lovely Jadeite looking cup of summer posies from her sweet niece today. We met at Steak and Shake in Columbia for lunch since Mom is on Radiation trip number 21.... Only four more! and My cousin's daughter in love is confined to a hospital pre-natal ward for nine weeks flat on her back to avoid preterm labor and delivery... wow... that would be a LONG nine weeks! But so worth it if it holds out for that baby boy they are cherishing. My morning views... a lot of this... I am humbled, gratified, and struck by the love I see in action at this Cancer Clinic. So many middle-aged "boys" and "girls" like me are hovering about their parents, who are on walkers, in wheel chairs, on three-footed canes... We are squiring them into the clinic for their treatments and biding our morning in the parking lots, the leatherette waiting room, the driveways... hoping and praying for recoveries, for healing, for cures, for remissions... just as our parents once transported our anxious little, cranky hot bodies to ballgames, music lessons, and playdates... Life has a way of coming full circle, but the borders blur, the motives intensify, and the stakes go up. I found it easier to be selfless when my little man was in the passenger seat and I sat for hours while he batted his way through little league...
My summer is winding down--- much less than a month until summer yields to teacher workshops, to book orders, to students seated in classrooms prepared or not... The usual question: "Have you had a good summer?" I hear it over and over ALREADY. Have I? I have. I have been to one summer dinner in honor of a friend's birthday... on my own. We had taco salads, sat on a screened-in porch, and relaxed the night away until dusk.
Otherwise, Mom and I have buddied it up going to treatments and scouring the countryside on Saturdays for beautiful flowers. I blog. I read. I watch tv's summer offerings late at night... I've studied Esther with Beth Moore, and I've planned to glitter a whole lot of pretty cards and postcards with tons of glitter from my stash. I think I've had what can only be termed a "sweet summer." I tolerate the care and watering of flowers a teeny bit more and I have been blessed with cool temperate climate.. How about you? Have you had a good summer? I am blessed, and I know it... I truly do.

3 comments:

Becky K. said...

Gayla,
I wish we could just grab a cuppa of sumpin' and gab.

How well I recognize this stage of our lives...You and your Mother are blessed to have each other and it sounds like you make a great team. I can just picture you on little bitty roads ooh-ing and ahh-ing at sweet flowers...or you with your geese friends. My Mom and I hit yard sales on Friday. She gets so lonely, I know, but it is hard to be everything to everybody.
Anyhoo.

My summer?

Interesting. With Mikey's internship 40 minutes one way to the East we have spent mega time on the road. Both Moms are in good health at the moment and have been very helpful taking turns making these trips twice a day.

I am doing my best to reduce my expectations for what gets accomplished each day. That works so much better for me than getting frustrated.

Then there is the ongoing planning for next year's schoolwork. This morning it was American History lessing planning. Just a bit at a time.

So...all in all things are great here. I can't complain either.

Sending happy thoughts for the results from your Mom's radiation and that it is very effective!

Glad you posted...That wreath is amazing!

Anonymous said...

That little bicycle is adorable in your wreath. What a terrific idea.

Gretchen

black eyed susans kitchen said...

Gayla, Hospitals and clinics are a humbling experience..I agree. The flip side is that you see the beautiful things in life so much more clearly. The flowers are lovely.
♥, Susan