Living At Wit's End

Sometimes it’s funny how life gets your attention and other times it’s like a cold splash of water in your face. Several events this past Memorial weekend got my attention. By the end of the weekend it felt like a cold splash of water in my face, leaving me breathless, gasping for air.       First you must know I have a couple of addictions, one is containers, baskets, any sort of interesting or useful storage item. I love them! I love all stores that have wonderful storage items! I could get in big trouble if I actually gave into my addiction.       The other addiction I have is books. I love books, I love the smell of them, I love to hold them and read them. I love my Kindle and Nook apps because I can carry several books at once, everywhere I go! I’m usually reading at least two books at all times, right now I’m reading four of them. Two of them are self-help/info sorts and two are stories; one fiction, one not. I could probably read a lot faster i

REPOST from August 23, 2013 I have written on my blog about the heroism of and my admiration for the Organized Child's godfather.  I was in awe as I learned even more about his bravery and heroism at his funeral.  I had an admiration (and still do) for the Godfather be cause of his patriotism and devotion as a man, father, grandfather and soldier.  However, I am ashamed of my lack of admiration for another man who deserved it just as much as The Godfather did. For years growing up I heard the story of my grandfather's heroism, but that's all it was, a story.  A story that went along with a picture of a handsome, young, man that hung on the wall. The story was never quite clear and seemed to have a few variations.  I knew that he had died saving some men in a fire.  What I took away from the story was the devastation and pain it had caused my grandmother, aunts and mother because he had died. After my grandmother died I learned a little more about my grandfather

When I was little probably five or six, I took ballet lessons along with my friend that lived across the street from me.   To be honest I don’t remember a whole lot about the lessons themselves.   What I do remember is the recital we had.   This is probably because of the two 8 x 10 pictures, featuring the group of us little girls, in our costumes, in my baby book.   (I just went looking to see the pictures and verify there weren’t more photos.   When my parents moved into their motorhome I was sure my mom gave me my childhood photo albums, but if she did I don’t know what I did with them.   So, note to self, check with mom about photo albums.) Anyway, what I remember is being able to wear make-up, and getting to dress up in costumes.   We must have had two numbers that we performed because we were all wearing two different costumes in the pictures.   In one of the pictures we are all wearing pretty, royal blue, sequined ballet costumes.   We all wore the same costume.   Precio

Today I had to take The Informer to the doctor for a follow-up appointment.   They asked us to be there a half hour before our appointment, the doctor ended up being late by an hour and twenty minutes.   So, this meant that my very active eight year old ended up waiting almost two hours in a very plain and very boring exam room.   Now she brought in some school work but only four books.   She plowed through those pretty quickly.   I suggested we do some extra pages to get a jump on the week and maybe finish out the year a little bit early, at least in those books.   She did a little more but quickly decided she had had enough.    We read the one and only story book they had in the room.   The nurse took The Informer’s blood pressure and all the other diagnostic things nurses do before the doctor comes in.   That burned up about forty minutes.   We played eye spy, but here’s the thing, it’s really hard to play eye spy when the room you’re in is all white, there is one picture and a cloc

There are several Mom Parodies using the “Let It Go” song going around right now.   Some of them are hysterical.   This one in particular brought tears to my eyes .       In the beginning she sings of aggravation and the day to day stuff mom’s deal with, dirty socks, laundry, fighting, tantrums, trash etc.   However in the end she nails it!   The lines that got me, put the lump in my throat and the tears in my eyes…. let it go let it go I just have to keep my calm let it go let it go cause I’m their only mom here I stand and here I’ll say cause I’m their mom that stuff never bothered me anyway Wow!   It hit me like a ton of bricks because I very rarely keep my calm and all that stuff usually bothers me a lot!   I’m working on letting go VERY slowly, at a snail’s pace.   I wish I was mastering it at Turbo’s pace, but not the case.       The line that really got to me was “ cause I’m their only mom ” I never stopped to think

    This will be the first Mother’s Day without my mother-in-law Lynda Allen.   She went home to be with the Lord on Black Friday last year, a truly black day for our family.   In honor of my mother-in-law I thought I would share my eulogy with you. December 6, 2013 - Over the past week, preparing for this funeral I have learned a lot about the woman that raised my husband.   Part of me is sad because I didn’t learn about these things while she was alive, but another part of me knows it’s because in many ways Lynda was a very private person and didn’t share much of her past with us.   So, let me tell you a little bit of what I learned about the woman I called Mom A. Lynda was born in Chicago, Illinois on Jan. 20, 1925 she was one of 5 children.   Her mother Susan was born in Poland and came to America when she was 17.   Her father Jim, was American born, of polish descent.   Lynda grew up in the Chicago area and had a happy childhood.   When she was 16 she quit scho