Tag: family

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My Retirement List 21-30 of 50

Photo by Steven Hylands on Pexels.com

I’m taking the week to write list poems of all the things I’ll do when I retire. They say we should never retire from something, always to something. So I’ll retire to some work and some play, but I want to steer the wheel and throw away the clock. This is day 3 of 5 that I’ll list ten things I’ll do when I am officially off contract for life.

First, a review of the past two days:

  1. I’ll write into the day.
  2. I’ll visit the library twice a week to check out new books.
  3. I’ll read into the evening by the fire, dogs in my lap.
  4. I’ll shop at the farmer’s market for fresh fruits and vegetables.
  5. I’ll cook things fresh-grown and scrubbed clean.
  6. I’ll take morning walks with the dogs, strolling instead of hurrying.
  7. I’ll make pictures and put them on calendars and notecards.
  8. I’ll pick wildflowers.
  9. I’ll put the picked flowers in the flower press.
  10. I’ll make bookmarks with my pressed flowers.
  11. I’ll savor my coffee, linger longer before showering.
  12. I’ll meet friends for lunch.
  13. I’ll design patterned rag quilts.
  14. I’ll cut flannel quilt squares and stitch them in rows.
  15. I’ll go to sleep when it’s dark and awaken when it’s light.
  16. I’ll wash my dishes by hand in warm water with fragrant dish soap.
  17. I’ll bake fresh, healthy muffins for breakfast.
  18. I’ll volunteer to drive someone to a doctor’s visit.
  19. I’ll make a big pot of soup every few weeks to freeze and give to shut-ins.
  20. I’ll pick my own apples in North Georgia.

And now today’s list:

21. I’ll take more impromptu personal field trips to satisfy my curious adventure spells.

22. I’ll coordinate my wardrobe down to the kind where all the tops match all the bottoms and all the outfits have three shoe possibilities – and pretty much ditch the rest to live more simply.

23. I’ll go on writing crawls, writing in first one place and then the next through the day.

24. I’ll attend more book festivals near me and listen to more regional authors speak.

25. I’ll sit in Starbucks and write just for the crooner music and the perfectly-lit ambience.

26. I’ll carry only a small crossbody bag with my driver’s license, some money, and a tube of Candy Cane chapstick that I buy by the box.

27. I’ll sit on my front porch and pray.

28. I’ll learn more about making salves and tinctures, and take a hobby class on it.

29. I’ll wrap all my wine bottles with twine to create vases and fill them with wildflowers and leave them on random doorsteps where they don’t have Ring cameras to catch me.

30. I’ll take more slow country drives at sunset to see the sun sinking below the fenced cattle meadows.

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My Retirement List: 11-20 of 50

I’m taking the week to write list poems of all the things I’ll do when I retire. They say we should never retire from something, but instead always to something. So I’ll retire to some work and some play, but I want to steer my own wheel and throw away the clock. Today is day two of five days that I’ll list ten things I’ll do when I am officially off contract for life.

First, a review of yesterday’s list:

  1. I’ll write into the day.
  2. I’ll visit the library twice a week to check out new books.
  3. I’ll read into the evening by the fire, dogs in my lap..
  4. I’ll shop at the farmer’s market for fresh fruits and vegetables.
  5. I’ll cook things fresh-grown and scrubbed clean.
  6. I’ll take morning walks with the dogs, strolling instead of hurrying.
  7. I’ll make pictures and put them on calendars and notecards.
  8. I’ll pick wildflowers.
  9. I’ll put the picked flowers in the flower press.
  10. I’ll make bookmarks with my pressed flowers.

And now for today’s list:

11. I’ll savor my coffee, linger longer before showering.

12. I’ll meet friends for lunch.

13. I’ll design patterned rag quilts.

14. I’ll cut flannel quilt squares and stitch them in rows.

15. I’ll go to sleep when it’s dark and awaken when it’s light.

16. I’ll wash my dishes by hand in warm water with fragrant dish soap and blow the bubbles.

17. I’ll bake fresh, healthy muffins with bananas and chia and flax seeds for breakfast.

18. I’ll volunteer to drive someone to a doctor’s visit each week because I understand the village we all need.

19. I’ll make a big pot of soup every few weeks to freeze and give to chemotherapy shut-ins.

20. I’ll pick my own apples in North Georgia.

What are your favorite things about retirement?

Special thanks to Two Writing Teachers at Slice of Life
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The Biblical History Center: The Nativity Tour

time with our grandson

sharing a Biblical meal

(he teamed up for pranks)

On Saturday, we picked up our oldest grandson, Aidan, and headed over to LaGrange, Georgia to the Biblical History Center. We’d gone a couple years back and enjoyed the regular tour, so we wanted to take Aidan back to share in the Biblical Meal and join us on the Nativity Tour, which begins November 1 and runs through December. Since he plans to enter the ministry, we correctly predicted that this would be a highlight of his Christmas season (which, by the way, now apparently starts the day after Halloween).

You can read my previous 3-part blog posts here, here, and here.

In true grandfather/grandson style, the first thing they did in the midst of the reverence of the meal was prank my blog photographs (I confess – – I do take a lot of pictures since I like to use them when I write). First, my husband diverted his gaze upward. Of course, I showed it to them and playfully scolded Poppy for messing up the picture. I told them we’d have to take another one.

And look at this. Just look at what these clowns did.! They teamed up to keep the prank going. So of course……we had to take another. People around us were holding back laughter, and I felt at once as if I were back in church sitting by that one friend you should never sit with in church, knowing you might not behave.

Finally, they got it just right. Fun at its best with these two!

We started the meal with our guide, blessing first the drinks and then the food. As she offered the prayer first in English and then in Hebrew, we repeated the Hebrew words. Then, we began passing the food – mostly a Mediterranean diet, starting with unleavened bread (a flour tortilla), followed by eggs, hummus, raisins, grilled chicken (substituted for lamb), spinach/artichoke dip, lentil soup, grapes, applesauce, salad, and black and green olives. We did not use forks, since they didn’t in Biblical times. We drank our soup and ate with our fingers or used our flour tortilla to scoop food and eat it. The health department requires the center to provide napkins, but they explained that in Biblical times, we would not have had them. Additionally, in Biblical times we would not have been seated but actually more laid back on our sides to share the meal.

As we made our way along the tour, we learned the truth about the inn which would have normally been an extra room in a home of a family and not an inn as we think of it like a hotel or British pub with rooms upstairs. A family would not have welcomed a pregnant woman about to give birth, because the birthing process would have deemed the house unclean and they would have had to leave for a month. The place where Jesus was born was more likely a sheepfold, and a manger made not of wood but of stone. Not so much a stable as a livestock barn but more of a sheep enclosure.

This was a fabulous day, and we also were blessed to see the archaeological artifacts on loan from Israel. This is the only Biblical History Center in the entire United States Southeast that has these items, including a coin like the one that the woman in the Bible lost from her wedding headdress. It was fascinating to see the pottery pieces, the tools, and the weaving looms from Biblical times. These items remain in a vault that is climate controlled, behind glass, and no photographs can be taken of them. It was a treat to be able to see the items on display and have a guide who explained their significance. I think that of all the artifacts, I was most fascinated with the beads that were found in an Old Testament tomb. The beads were coiled scrolls that contain the Aaronic Blessing with the message The Lord Bless You and Keep You, The Lord Lift His Countenance Upon You and Give You Peace and be Gracious Unto You. These beads held importance for establishing the significance of the cultural context of the tomb and its place in history.

After a three hour tour including a meal and a narrated historical journey through the center’s outdoor replicas of historically accurate structures – and a t-shirt for Aidan to help him think of his trip each time he wears it – we took a moment to stop at Starbucks for a cup of iced coffee and to chat about our time together. Aidan said his favorite part was learning about the true foot position of crucifixion which is more likely pierced through the side of the ankle than the top of the foot. Briar said his favorite part of the visit to the center was the interactive lighted maps of Biblical places, and my favorite part was watching Aidan’s participation in answering questions that demonstrated his knowledge of the Bible and his passion for all it means to him.

Next up when we return to the Biblical History Center in the spring: The Easter Tour.

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The Strange People at the Air Show

My stepson, an Operations Manager at Atlanta-Hartsfield Airport, got us tickets to see the Thunderbirds just hours before the air show in Peachtree City, Georgia sold out last weekend. We’ve seen the Blue Angels several times with him, but the Thunderbirds were a first.

Despite the heat, the swarming traffic (shuttle bus service from parking lots), and the throngs of people, the show was amazing! I wasn’t sure whether they would allow umbrellas into the event (they did), so I didn’t take one – – instead, I brought a thin scarf I’d purchased in Europe to cover my head and neck to divert heat and avoid sunburn. I realized during a demonstration of a WW2 plane that the scarf I’d purchased in Germany…..had Berlin written all over it and had images of the Brandenburg Gate and made me look a bit like I was wearing a religious head covering to an air show, standing there next to my husband who’d grabbed the beat up Indiana Jones hat he wears out on the tractor.

I was wearing my darkest sunglasses and trying my best to prevent a bout of vertigo with the interplay of the heat, the light, and noise, and the disorienting focus of trying to keep my eyes focused on the show jets overhead, to the left, to the right, right side up and upside down.

We don’t get out much. We have now become the strange people we’ve always wondered about.

we stood all day in sweltering heat

at the Peachtree City airport

just to see the Thunderbirds

and what a show it was!

the roar of the jets

can’t be described

only felt

in your

soul

My husband and stepson enjoying the show as the Tbirds launch right out of the tractoring hat
Peace !
Screenshot
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He Who Must Be Announced

on days I come home for lunch to let

the schnoodles out, two rush the door

tails wagging, sniffing my shoes to check

for signs of where I’ve been for what

must seem like weeks to them in dog time

but one stays on the bed, ears perked,

staring me down in this regular routine

tail wagging, regarding me as a mere

servant of minimal importance who has

just strolled upon his highness by chance,

awaiting his expectation of me:

he likes to be announced

and so I throw my hands up high

overhead, Hallelujah-church-style,

tilt my head back in a trumpet call

shake my palms like tambourines

and in a voice of frenzied excitement

to an imaginary kingdom of commoners

peering up at us on the castle balcony

from outside the gated grounds below

as if I’ve just noticed him sitting there

with his self-soothing chew turtle I proclaim:

oh, look! it’s my Fitzie! Fitzie, come on!

(and he knows the difference between

my on pronounced like own and his

dad’s on pronounced like ahn

and he prefers mine said my certain way)

then down the little foam bed stairs

he regally trots to go outside to

gently lift a leg, this mighty

miniature aging soul dog of mine,

whose leg the rescue managed

to save primarily because of his

spirited will to live and rule, this royal brat

who forgets he was once a

stray on the streets looking for

love, this canine son of ours who

knows he found a throne

among his people

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Making Soup


what is it about

making soup that brings comfort?

heartiness, warmth, taste?

when days feel untied

I take out the steel kettle

fire the front burner

pour in chicken stock

add vegetables and spices

let it simmer……..breathe

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Write the Poem: Day 5 of 5 of The October Open Write

Our host today for the last day of our October Open Write is Donnetta Norris of Arlington, TX. She shares her inspiration and process, which you can read below or here.

She encourages writers to write a poem on a theme using word associations. I’ll be hosting the first day of the November Open Write on November 16, so I’m using the day to set the stage for my prompt on that day – an invitation to a fantasy writing retreat in a location of the poet’s choice in a list style format, offering location, a snack, a companion critter, a writing utensil, an outfit, and a gift for everyone. Come join Donnetta today at http://www.ethicalela.com, and then November 16, return and join me as well. We’re having all kinds of fun!

An Invitation

save the date: November 16

you may choose to arrive by stretch limousine

we’ll be gathering in style for a writer’s retreat

whether castle or cabin or on your own street

we’ll spend the day writing in fantasy places

day one: a packing list poem ~ what’s in our suitcases?

so gather your words ~ select them with flair

I’ll be the door greeter to welcome you there!

you’ll need your location and writing utensil

something to wear, and perhaps a spare pencil

we’ll all need a critter (think Hogwarts style)

and a snack to share to write all the while

and then let’s bring one thing – a gift for the group

something to make us all laugh, cry, or hoot

what’ll it be? oh, I can’t wait to see ~

here’s a basket of tickets – take some – they’re free!

let’s keep Donnetta’s theme words sparking and growing

return in November, keep writing ongoing!

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Questionable Products – October Open Write Day 1 of 5

Scott McCloskey from Michigan is our host today for the first day of our October Open Write at http://www.ethicalela.com. He inspires us to write Questionable Products Poems – the kind with a slant of an ode to something that raises our eyebrows in wonder, disgust, or utter surprise. You can read his full prompt here. Be sure to check out the links, too, at the bottom – for those strange things we all need.

My Mark on the World

speaking of unboxing gifts

I’m inventing the next big thing

because of all the things that 

annoy me like the partially squeezed 

twisted toothpaste tubes or 

velcroed soap with melded slices sticking

like a bloodletting leech to a larger bar or

handwarmer mugs that brand palms or

already-used weekly sandwich bags or

damp half-paper towels drying to be recycled or

all those other quirks like the holy

t-shirts because they’re good for tractoring

what annoys me the most is the simple

kitchen dishtowel that never

-do you hear me?  never – 

and I mean never, ever, ever not once

not once –

makes it back to the oven handle

where it is supposed to hang out

unless I put it there myself

it’s not really even a dishtowel, per se,

it playfully pops behinds and serves as a napkin

for powdered donuts and

wipes counter messes and

occasionally dries a dish

but it naps, crumpled in comfort on counters

on the table

on the bar

on the coffee table

and so I’m inventing one

with invisible GPS homing strings 

to draw it back 

to where it goes

so that I will have left 

my mark in this world

right in the hearts of 

kitchens all over 

the world

in the smiles of wives

worldwide

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Home from Kentucky

The drive took 8 1/2 hours with only one stop to fill up the gas tank and to get an iced mocha and a Rice Krispy treat as a snackish meal to avoid making a time consuming stop. When I blew through Nashville without any significant delays, this should have been the signal flag that I was in traffic trouble in Chattanooga and Atlanta.

Standstill traffic in each of those two cities set me back by two hours – about an hour each with stop and go brake lights and watching the rear view mirror in case I needed to brace myself for a texting driver not paying attention. I finished my audiobook and talked to family on the phone, catching up from the few days I was away.

A return to my own bed and flatter memory foam pillows was bittersweet. I miss my daughter and her fiancé already, but I rest in the comfort that they are continually building their new life together a few states away, while mine is here. There is great blessing in the peace of knowing that she is deeply happy and that so many prayers have been answered.

they moved in today

opened new doors to new life

forever as one

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Western Kentucky Botanical Gardens Surprise!

they’re tying the knot!

he proposed – and she said yes!

so many blessings!

The day began like any other, only it wasn’t. A bowl of Raisin Bran with a sliced banana and a cup of coffee, the back-hum of morning news and the coming and going of guests all eating breakfast in a Hampton Inn in Western Kentucky – – and I was among them, looking forward to the big surprise awaiting my daughter at the Western Kentucky Botanical Gardens in the afternoon. No, this day was certainly not like any other I’d ever lived.

On August 20, he’d asked for her hand, and I gave my whole-hearted blessing. He’d been there for her on one of the toughest roads of her life. In those moments that held emotional release as I watched them interact in their early days, I saw something different about this young man and the way he’d interacted with my daughter.

First, the love in his eyes. His mother said the same thing: he’s dated before, but I’ve never seen him look at anyone else with such love. Her observation took the words right out of my mouth. Their love for each other is evident. So real you can see it.

Second, the care. I witnessed her tears as she sat at the table searching for a lost item needing to be found, hearing her sniffles at the sense of hopelessness for only a moment before he got up from his chair, rounded the table, took her in his arms, and comforted her in the gentlest way.

I prayed. Lord, please let us find what we need.

Then, in an obscure envelope in the most unlikely place in the box from the attic, it manifested itself like sunlight rising over a crest.

This journey has been one of prayer, one of power seen in the ordinary moments for this couple. And God winked on them – he knows her tender heart, knew it would take a strong and patient man to win her heart and her trust. And the good Lord sent just the right soul mate.

Third, the lighthearted fun and playful side that keeps them laughing – a quick run and boot-bottom slide down the aisle of the store when no one is looking, teasing each other here and there in all the ways that will get them through life without taking it all too seriously to be enjoyed. He asked her what kind of birthday cake she’d wanted, and she jokingly quipped she’d wanted a cake like Aunt Petunia made in one of the Harry Potter movies.

And he made it for her.

And fourth, the commitment. I saw it before, but I saw it in other ways on my visit here on my fall break- the commitment to family, to God, to each other. This family sits down for cooked meals – – talks about what they want to eat, shops for it, slices carrots and mashes four full heads of cauliflower like mashed potatoes and cooks together. Someone makes shortbread and can talk about the balance of sugars and fats and how that’s the science of baking that he knows so well. Another pulls out a special sauce to marinate the chicken for the grill, while one takes it to the flat top for cooking. There is a throng of family present, and they take turns walking and feeding the rescue dogs that are a part of their family. They all pitch in, then they sit down together and thank God for his many blessings. And one takes the plates when everyone is finished, while his mother thanks him. I believe somewhere in the deepest reaches of my heart that they also thank God for their challenges. The mold issue that forced them to gut their home and rebuild it brought a more spacious kitchen – – one where the table is at the heart, filled with chairs for coming together and talking at the end of the day – a place where conversation keeps them connected like the roots of the strongest trees. It keeps them close.

I knew why I gave my blessing, but it wasn’t until I visited and became part of the fabric of this amazing family that I fully understood what she shared on her Facebook post:

I’m thrilled for these two young adults with their lives ahead of them – ready for the living, with a family who loves them – and them, ready to love their own family when they welcome their son into the fold in January. And I was blessed to be a part of their big moment yesterday. This young man knew her mama’s heart needed to be there to celebrate, and he made it happen, holding tight to the ring he’s had waiting for two months now, buying a new jacket with big enough pockets to hide the ring for just the right moment, just the right place, just the right timing.

Steadfast prayers of so many have brought the most beautiful blessings!