Rethinking......

It is entirely possible that this continuance of the "lock down of 2020" has caused my my mind to  skip a few steps. Along with time, reason seems to be slipping away from me
I decided, a couple of weeks ago, to make some bread. Well, apparently half of the cooks in the United States have had the same idea. Bread has been a bit scarce, at the grocery stores, so making our own bread, has seemed a logical step, for the home-bound masses.
Because of this sudden need to create home-baked bread, flour and yeast have also been absent from  grocery shelves. Last week, I finally found some yeast. Now, I reasoned with myself, was the time to  make some bread..
But, what kind of bread should I make? Sour Dough sounded creative and delicious. Turning to the Internet, I discovered about twenty different recipes for Sour Dough Starter. Everyone, I pondered,  must be making Sour Dough Bread. Sour Dough must be all the rage.
I proceeded to measure the ingredients. But, right before I began to add the liquid to the dry ingredients, I had one of those "deja vu " moments.
OM Golly. I had done this before!  I vividly remembered making sour dough starter. I baked the bread a couple of times and then, because I had to "grow" it by adding stuff to the starter, at regular and seemingly unending intervals, the starter began to multiply and multiply.
I remember trying to give batches of the starter, to my friends, but no one would take it! I ended up pitching the whole mess into the garbage. Actually, I recall, that I may have done this Sour Dough thing, several different times...once in the 60s and another time in the 80s.
So, I ended my bread baking, before it began. After all, bread is back on the shelves.
I wonder if anyone has a recipe for paper products?

Good Lord. We are never satisfied. We never have enough. Remind us to live simply and carefully. Show us how to use our gifts to Your best advantage.

"Good Golly Miss Molly"

All of my life, I have been afflicted by an unusual obsession. My brain is full of song lyrics. Not anything original. I've never written song lyrics. But, instead of useful knowledge, like math facts or scientific explanations, my head is full of other people's musical poetry.
I have the weird ability to remember lyrics for any word or occasion. It is hereditary. My sister does it, and I think my mother was guilty of teaching both of us to do it.  Just today, my husband mentioned that he needed to do more walking. I broke into a loose and lively rendition of Fat's Domino's "I'm Walkin". Did a complete verse, by golly.
When my children were young, I was always singing. My boys, particularly one of them, would say, after a quick concert of, "Where Did You Get That Hat?", "I'm Great and No One Knows It", or
"The KU Fight Song"...........Stop Mother!  This obvious disdain of my talent used to bother me. But, guess what my most vocal critic does for his lively hood, now that he doesn't have to listen to me sing, daily? He write songs!
Sometimes, I can't remember what makes me think of certain songs. Yesterday, an obscure  Beatles song popped into my mind, and I started singing. "Her name was McGill. She called herself  Lil. But, everyone knew her as Nancy. " Tomorrow, I'll be singing another gem, from my cerebral catalog.
I can't help it. Life is just one big, long, song.

Dear God. You made each one of us unique. What an incredible accomplishment! Show us how to use our individual talents, to manifest our Faith in You. Your will be done. God Loves Us.

Umbrella Weather

I have a friend, who recently reminded me, that a smile can change just about everything. She's correct. A smile can alter your attitude. Try it. It works. The smile you wear can change the attitude and outlook of those you meet and greet.
Do you remember the song "Just Let a Smile Be Your Umbrella"? It was written almost one hundred years ago, by Sammy Fain and Irving Kahal. It's a really fun and happy song.
Well, as the lyrics go, we are experiencing a "a rainy, rainy day". Folks are tired of being cooped up and the majority of us are pretty cranky. I'm wearing a frown, more and more often, these days.To counteract the grumpies, I call and tell our residents, at the retirement community, a joke every day. Today it was an umbrella joke. According to my research, umbrella jokes, like umbrella songs, are plentiful. Umbrellas are worth writing about.
Here's one to make you smile.
    Why do folks in big cities carry umbrellas? .....Umbrellas can't walk.
Here's another one.
    Why did the man put his umbrella away and open his coin purse?..He was hoping for a change  in the weather.
     Did you smile? Because "a smile will bring the sunshine, and you'll never get wet".

Dear Lord. Show us how to enjoy the life you have given us. Help us see "the sunshine" We know that you are always watching over us. Let us remain thankful.

Reflections

Mother's Day always evokes a torrent of emotions, in everyone. We all have mothers, of course, and most of us have really fond memories of them. However, this Mother's Day (social distancing, masks, Zooming, etc.) is very different from our normal "once-a-year celebration" of our moms. In honor of this, I am going to focus on my children. Children, biological or otherwise related, make us moms. My four children have made me who I am.

First of all, let it be known that no mother is perfect. I certainly haven't been. The reason, just might be, that neither are my four kids. But, moms, being who we are, continue to love them unconditionally. We cherish the crudely constructed, hand-made presents, from years past, as much as we do the flowers and items arriving, these days, from Amazon. Just like Mary Poppins, I consider my children "practically perfect, in every way".

I am very proud of my children. They are all well-educated, productive adults. They have, among them, seven college degrees. This, to me, is amazing, especially when you consider that their maternal great grandmother never learned to read or write (in any language). And, another grandfather never went beyond the 6th grade. 

All four are outstanding parents. Not only have they managed to avoid criminal activities (I'm fairly certain about that), they have produced children who are all pleasant and creative individuals. Grandchildren are the best! Thanks to my terrific grandchildren, my refrigerator has not been devoid of artwork, since 1960 something!

I wish they lived closer and that we could see all of them more often. But, they don't and we can't. I am truly thankful that they have busy lives.

Dear God. Thank you for my children (and grandchildren). I am blessed.

Ch Ch Ch Changes.

I never thought I would:

• Count the number of rolls of toilet paper, in our bathroom closet, and try to calculate how long they will last.
• Find empty shelves in an American supermarket, when a snowstorm was not in the immediate weather forecast.
• Not be able to see and play with our grand-girls, weekly.
• Buy flour, cake mixes, milk, bread, baking soda and frozen food at any grocery store.
• Go sit down inside any restaurant. restaurant or public library.
• Watch a 10 year old sports event, on television, like it was happening today!
• Buy gas at prices we haven't seen in a couple of decades.

I miss all of the things I took for granted. God, please help me to remember how blessed my life has been. And, how blessed I continue to be. Remind me to count those blessings.

Mikey Approved.

In my (not so humble) opinion there isn't much of anything worth watching on television, these days.  Because of the Coronovirus Lockdown, there are no live sporting events to see. Good Lord, I flipped by an Ali fight, the other day! How many decades old was that show? There are no new series episodes to watch and all of the live shows are being made from broadcaster's living rooms. I'm stuck in my own living room. I don't want to see anymore sofas. In fact, I think the only shows worth watching are the tremendously popular Hallmark movies.
At this point, I have seen most of the Christmas movies (and there are dozens), at least twice, but there are some of the Mysteries that are new to me. If you are not yet familiar with Hallmark productions, let me assure you "if you try them, you'll like them." Watch a few and you will soon learn why they are so popular.
Familiarity breeds contentment.
The plots are all Hallmark Productions are similar. Couples meet. Get to know each other. Fall in love. A misunderstanding happens. They split up. They get back together. They kiss. The End. In the Christmas themed movies there is always a lot of snow, Christmas trees, ornaments (Hallmark is the sponsor, after all.) and hot chocolate.
In the mysteries, there is no blood or gore, just a dead body or two per episode. The mystery always gets solved, the heroine never gets killed and the bad folks are generally captured alive! Most of the time, there is, yet again, a closing kiss.
The acting is good, maybe not Oscar or Emmy Award winning, but okay.
They are entertaining. I'm a fan.

Dear Lord. We are impatient.
We need to have Faith. You are our Constant, our Hope in time of trouble.

The Early Years

After nearly seven years, at the same Harry Potter desk (it's located under a staircase), I have enough material to write a really long, and very detailed book about working in a retirement community.
One of the first chapters, will be recounting the particularly quirky mishaps, that occurred when we opened this remarkably beautiful building.
First of all, no one in our area had seen such a stunning building, built for the specific use of our older population. Everyone who entered kept remarking how gorgeous and classy everything looked. We were very proud.
However, there were a few glitches. We had opened the building without a finished kitchen.And in order to meet the dietary needs of our residents, our chef prepared breakfast and lunch for them every day. In the evening, food was carried in, from area restaurants. The restaurant of choice was the Corner Cafe, a local comfort-food place. I became a regular, with my pick-up orders. The cafe staff began to call me by name, and I became the "chuck-wagon" lady, to our residents.
At the same time, several parts of the building were still getting their finishing touches. While sitting at the main floor reception desk, one morning, I heard a burst of profanity and a loud bang, from the floor above. I looked upward, just in time, to see the light fixture above my head start to fill with water. Thinking that the possibility of electrocution was imminent, I hesitated only a moment, jumped up and away from the floating puddle and switched off the light. Immediately, the plastic fixture came loose from the ceiling and what seemed like a bathtub amount of water, dumped on my formerly occupied chair.
I escaped harm. A workman had accidentally broken the water pipe, that fed the Jacuzzi tub, in the 2nd floor, work-out room. He was fine, we mopped up a lot of water and we all had a great story to tell.
It was proving to be a job of a lifetime!

God is good. We are blessed.