On I Remember My Grandmas:

I have been thinking about my own grandmothers lately.

They are both long gone, more than 30++ years ago.

Of the two, I remember my mothers mom more. It was location more then anything. She lived around the corner and the other was over an hours drive away. And back in those days that was a day trip.

The first house I lived in was my Grandma’s. My parents were saving to buy a house.














This is the house from the back. With my mom in the side yard, before World War II, if you want a time reference.

Because of my grandma that house was a haven from the rest of the world. We were eight of us in a four room apartment. My parents rented out the upper floor apartment to help pay for the clothing and feeding of the six kids.

At grandma’s it was loving care, order and discipline. The food was good, hot and plain. Things were done on a schedule. They didn’t put up with roughhousing or poking about. But underneath it all was a sense of humor. Jokes flew, mostly over our heads. Giggles and laughter lived at both of my grandma’s houses.

And a sense of peacefulness. The quite comfort of an afternoon nap on the rug in a sun puddle. While grandma snoozed in her armchair rocker. The quite warmth of the hiss of the radiators in the winter. A place to go when things weren’t ‘as one would like’ with too many people living at home.

My father’s mother died when I was 14 and my mother’s mom when I was 23. But never a week passes by that I don’t think about them in one way or another. For the things that they taught me or the experiences I had at their knee.

I want to be a grandma worth remembering.

On Just a Quick Message:

There is a new story up on my ‘Thrill or Shiver’ story blog. It is a Halloween tale called ‘Halloween Pizza’.

I put it up early so I don’t miss the chance depending on when the new grandchild arrives. Enjoy, or should I say, Enjoy the Shiver.

On Childhood Reviewed:

As the time gets closer to being a full fledged grandmother I find myself thinking about when my kids were born and their early childhood and even my own.

I find myself watching cartoons and kids shows more then adult TV. To see what is out there for children these days and to jog a few memories.

The only thing that works better is the smell of crayons.

I do wish that they lived closer to me and I could be a more hands on grandma. But I have been collecting a craft box for visits. Not that an infant can craft, but you can’t start the box too early.

By the time the Little bat is old enough, I should have a good collection of things. Paper towel tubes that slide into each other, to be turned into spy glasses and kaleidoscopes and any number of other things.

Buttons and beads, ribbons and strings, a rainbow of colors in paper. Glue and paste, plastic wrap and tape, tin foil and sparkles. Safety scissors and rulers, crayons and markers, pencils and pens.

I’ll throw in dowels and some food coloring too. Some news print and wrapping paper also. We will mix in imagination and a willingness to have fun.

And out will come kites and large paper hats, enough animals to full up a zoo and a tea party for two. Anything we want, we will make or make do, and have all the fun we can concocted. And if we don’t it wont be for the lack of stuff in the craft box.

It has always turned rain days into holidays before and I’m counting on it working in the future.

On Mess Accumulation:

How can a house get so messy when I was hardly out of bed for days?

I just went from pillar to post today putting things away and cleaning the rest. Tomorrow I get back to knitting. My hands are itching to have something crafty to do again.

I have kept off the five pound. Not one came back when I started to be able to eat again.

I have been doing light exercises. Mostly because my legs and arms still feel like they are made from spaghetti noodles.

We got out to go shopping for food and a few things. I picked up a copy of ‘Wind in the Willows’ on DVD for the Little. The stop action animation one I like so much. I found myself singing the songs from it even though I haven’t seen it for years. I must have liked it even more then I thought.

I even got to water the plants today before they died on me.

I wanted to play, but I buckled down and got a lot of things done. And that feels good too.

Now for some video game fun. See you tomorrow.

By the way 10-10-10 will be here soon. Are you doing anything special for it? I’m still thinking on what I will do.

On Couldn’t I Used To Get Into That Dress?:

First I’ll ask a question or riddle as it were.

How do you loose five pounds in three days?

A: Exercise like a Mad Man day and night and Extreme Diet.

B: Go to a Doctor and have him/her Suck it out of you along with a lot of your money.

C: Get so awfully sick that you can’t eat, while you eliminate everything you’ve got for three days.

Ohhhh! Ohhhh! Let me pick! Please! Pretty Please!

I did Letter C for the last three days.

It was no fun I do have to say, but on the flip side I lost a dress size. And a lot of my wardrobe opened up to me again.

On the down side I missed three days of my life and I still have 70 pounds to loose.

Back to eating right and exercising the rest of my butt off.

So I’m off to make my egg free, fat free, sugar free Banana Wheat Germ Cookies in my new oven. It’s the first day I could think of food since I got it. The better to diet with my dear.

On Or Two In The Bush?:

Should I have tried it a third time? I think not. Bird in the hand and all that.

My new gas range is here. There is a dent from the top to the bottom on the right side. Even the frame is bent at the bottom. I could cry.

It should look like this. (I have to link you because my note book won’t behave with pictures.)

The dent is on the side you can’t see when it is in place, so I can live with it. I just would have liked to have a new stove that looks new even where you can’t see it.

I sucked it up. Got a 20% discount. And had them bring it in.

I now sit with the old one in place because they are not allowed to touch the gas pipes and I couldn’t budge the coupling. The new one in the walk way and the back door off its hinges and propped up against the refrigerator.

Yes, they would have replaced the door, but I just wanted them out of here. (And once we get the old one disconnected we need to have to door off to get it out of here.)

Mountain Man is out of town for the day. And I’ll have to wait until 7:00 PM for him to help me put everything to rights. Good thing it’s a nice day out there today.

It will all be right once I can cook again. I am reserving happiness until I can see it is in fact working. Time will tell.

On Roof Repairs Today:

So far, Ms Mousie of the Knotty Mouse Blog took me up on my tagging. She commented to say she would post it there. A great blogging friend and wonderful person.

If you heard any kind of news on yesterday, you know about the rain and flooding we were/are having on the east coast. Here, we got more rain in a day and a half then we usually get in a whole summer season.

Over five inches here in my garden. In a word, Wet!

It rained in my parlor too. Pots, pans, and plastic wastepaper baskets were placed about to catch the many drips.

And the water came down the chimneys. Stinky, black, creosote water. We have chimney caps, but they weren’t enough for the rain and wind we had.

Mountain Man was away for the day and I was on my own until he could make it back home at two in the morning. (He would have gotten back by ten if not for the detours.) Did you know that Pennsylvania has more bridges than any other state? Bridges that get flooded in weather like we had yesterday.

The water is going down and we needed the rain for the water table. We have well water here, no rain - no water.

Mountain Man will be up on the roof today fixing the leak and I will be nervous knitting until he is safely on the ground again.