Thursday, September 29, 2011

such lovely dreams



Okay...  so with only three hours of sleep since Monday, I was all tuckered out last night.  I crawled into bed, and an odd thought slipped through my mind...  I thought about that snake I had seen the first year I was here.  It bothered me a bit.  I even turned on my light and checked out the tops of the windows (a favorite haunt for blacksnakes, I had heard from my friend Nellie)...  Ah, nothing...  I ventured off into oblivion.  I didn't even remember dreaming, which is rare.  

Suddenly the tunes of "Hotel California," my ringtone...  It is four-thirty.  My mom's voice blares me awake...  "Gayla?"  (who did she think would answer?)

"Will you bring in something to kill....  something?  To my bathroom..."  That is NOT the phone call a person wants to get at 4:30 a.m.  There could be worse, of course, but really..???  I was thinking WHAT WAS THIS "SOMETHING"?

As I grabbed a cane, she came barreling out of that end of the house on her walker..  She can move, I tell you!  It was a four foot snake, maybe a black snake...  in the corner of her bathroom.  By the time I got in there, he was heading down the register..

Yours truly, who has to wear garden gloves to take out a mouse caught dead in a trap, took that cane and beat that poor snake to death.  Mom called our neighbor, and he arrived in no time to take the creature out to the yard and "kill it again."

By this time, it was 5:30....  and I have started my day.  I have a headache!

As I slipped off to get ready for school, Mom called after me: "I have a new respect for you."

"It was hard won," I mumbled....

Did I have a portent of that snake?  Does he have a brother?  Is a "day in the country" truly "worth a month in town"?

I think this post requires a comment!  I need your support out there!

Sunday, September 25, 2011

Saturday's Drive

 Friday was mid-term for the first quarter.  Five days of school, with all its scurrying, left me ready to grab Mom and a dear friend to head for peaceful territory.  We had lunch in our usual restaurant, filled with people on their way to the mall, to games, to hunting haunts....  and we drove through Clark Amish territory. 
 Our first stop is usually a peaceful, quiet little grocery store, but today it was bustling with the advent of an Amish auction.  Had we known, we could have had our lunch at their Amish food stand..  We noticed pie at 85 cents a slice, a hot dog for 89 cents, a cheeseburger for a dollar, and popcorn for a quarter...  However, we had enjoyed a great lunch and had to decline all these goodies.  Mom did buy a pecan and a peach pie for the freezer...  She believes in the saying:  "Pie fixes everything!"  I opted for little individual pies for our lunch today and for some homemade wheat bread and rolls...  A huge jar of million dollar pickles and a few pumpkins finished our shopping....
 The countryside suddenly tinted by autumn seemed more beautiful than usual, and we saw more children than we had ever noticed... I liked to see the little girls in their headscarves and tiny bonnets and the boys (and girls) in bare feet...  No pictures, of course, with my Canon, but hundreds of memory snaps for my soul...  I so admire the Amish for their industry and their smiles...  just what my spirit needed to jar me into action!
 Try as I might, I couldn't convince Mom to get over there by these corn shocks and let me take a picture of her for our Thanksgiving cards...  She just won't play that game!  Aren't they perfect?



Midnight found me finishing Autumn decorating upstairs, doing some laundry from "Mt. Washmore" (as Flylady calls it), and watching Donna Decorates Dallas...  (can you say bling?) on HGTV...  Today our kids are coming for chili...  The first day of autumn, welcomed by a spirit thirsty for brisk mornings and tinted trees, arrived at last...  All's well in my world.

Saturday, September 17, 2011

Fall Happens!


I tell you what!  I love Autumn with all my heart...  I cannot imagine how much happier I am during this magical, crisp time of year...  My heart and soul begins to sing that mellow, happy song, and I just adore all my fall decorations.  I was up at 4 a.m. decorating Mom's kitchen this week...  and today the boxes in the closet are calling my name..  I have probably too many fall decorations...  but they seem to speak to me of apple crisp, chili suppers, indoor tailgating parties...  football on tv, and cooler sweater weather...  All's well in the Autumn.

Monday, September 12, 2011

September sighs. . . and Sunlight slips to Autumn


Every morning I head out with my satchels and a little peanut butter sandwich, a diet coke... and some new plans for another year.  I love this time of year with its cooler temperatures, the misty sunrises, and the advent of football season.

What can I say?  It has been a rough few weeks here.  It seems impossible at times to imagine how quickly relationships can be broken.  Everyone goes through a personal mourning.  We love my son and our personal losses are pale in comparison to his loss...  He suddenly had a ready-made family...  a little seven year old boy who adores him... (and calls me Ma---- running to throw his arms around us)  that little guy is ostensibly gone.  Overnight.  I spent a couple of weeks ago watching YouTube videos of trucks in snow with him.  He hugged me goodbye twice, and Mom three times.  And possibly that's the last time we will  meet.  There is a Tonka snowplow stashed beside my chair in the magazine basket just in case...  but it would be only a visit, not the same.

Personal issues don't become my idea of Oatmeal and Whimsy, so I have been just quiet.  My son's friends are fantastic.  Life is moving on.  I again call on God's Rapha healing to stitch up broken hearts.  Everyone's.  The twilight fills with cicada calls, and the angle of light slants the September-signals of autumn.  .A change and a parting again for my family.  I will post again soon.

Monday, September 5, 2011

Labor Day Birthday... and Zombie Island...

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday!  We had a three-day weekend, and even though we just started school, a break was fun.  Our family celebrated my son's birthday with his friends.  He's back single again, which was kind of a bummer and poor timing and all that sad jazz...  I don't understand matters of the heart any more.  I sound flippant, but it has been a rough couple of weeks here.  We loved her and her little boy, and hearts get broken when these things happen...  My "radio silence" has been due to the somber reality that a couple of weeks ago, this was out of the radar...  Boom...  Don't Moms hurt when their kids get wounded?  But he managed to put on a good face for the family and for the party.  Tonight was a Chinese Restaurant outing.  I heard rumblings that he and his friends had reserved a midnight release copy of some video game...  Walmart is having an all night party for Zombie Island???  Anyone game?  I think I'll stick to Scrabble on my Ipad with my Sweetie!!!@@@

Have a great week...  Don't be jealous.  I ate a Crab Rangoon for ya!

Hugs...