Thursday, September 25, 2008

Give Me A T Give Me an E Give Me an A and an M...

Love is ... teamwork? How can something as simple as offering to take one of the kids to the doctor (and then of course the pharmacy) just overwhelm me with gratitude? Is it really so hard for me to wrap my head around the idea that I REALLY don't have to do it all alone any more?

How many thank you's are ever gonna be enough? I just can't believe the way my life has changed (Thank you so much Pa Ingalls!) It's amazing what a difference time and the company we keep makes!!!!!!!!

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

FAITH

Friends are what is left when you feel as if the whole world has left you.....

It is amazing to me the strength we find within ourselves when faced with insurmountable challenges---Things I am sure I could not handle become reduced to manageable simply by taking the first step in dealing with the problem....
Nothing conquers the fear of the unkown as strongly as the power of action... The Courage to take that first action I guess is FAITH..... faith in God, ourselves, perhaps mostly faith in hope.....

A really good friend is launching her own attack against the demons of cancer that were dealt to her....In body and mind she is a rock, and it is SHE that has to bear the invasive and destructive treatment---so why is it I feel as if MY world is at risk...... Selfish? Stupidity on my part?

After pick ing myself off the floor of my own self pity, I decided to empower myself in some small way....I set up a web site for donations to American Breast Cancer @ LONGISLAND.STRIDES@CANCER.ORG . Should ANYONE besides me be reading this....PLEASE make a donation.....$1. $5. $25. Any thing and every thing will be GREATLY appreciated... All donations go straight to the foundation....and your generosity today may in turn save a friend, family member, or aquaintance tomorrow.....THANK YOU!!!! With eternal gratitude..... Please help Women Helping Women make a difference in our lifetime....

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

I LOVE SUNDAYS AND MASHED POTATOS

We spent a good part of the weekend working around the house....Pa Ingalls was busy hooking up electric to our new upstairs addition with MORE than a little help from our friends!!!!! thanks Jimmy!!!! You really brighten our days (and our home!).

I scrubbed some screens and windows-boy, what a difference a little soap and water can make....With all that sunshine coming in, I then had to dust everything that didn't look quite so bad when there was no sun glare hitting the room!!!!!

The next logical thing would have been to scrub that dust that was now all over the wood floors---but I caught on to what was happening...... then I'd have to vacuum the surrounding areas, wash the walls, then I'd want to paint the ceilings and walls when I'd see how not clean they were coming.....so to save the cost of painting, I quit at dusting.....Anything to help Pa save money!!!!!

Actually, I found the afternoon better spent with a good book (the new Patricia Cornwell--The Point), and Pa actually took me in to town for some fancy vittles at VINTAGE steak house in ST James-----Never actually heard of it or been there before...but we will be back----Pricey, yes, but definitely worth that splurge....the steaks (A huge bone for Pa, filet mignon for me) were of the melt in your mouth category...butter knives could've cut them!!!!! The apps were wonderful---(real crab meat crab cakes! and mozzarella, tomatoe and roasted peppers) not to mention mashed garlic potatos that were to die for........If any one ever reads this and is passing through that neck of the woods, by all means make this a part of your day.....


I love Sundays!!!!!!!

SNIFFLE, SNEEZE COUGH DUE TO COLD.....

Why is it that strep throat can turn the most stubborn headed of all 17 year olds in to their former sweet child like selves???? Must a fever be involved for this mule willed person to come back to that adorable boy of three? And how is it that an eleven year old with a cold serious enough to make him put down a controller for an evening reduces me to Doctor mode? What is it about a sick kid that returns me to Mother Hen?
Maybe it's me, but a simple case of the sniffles puts me back in gear as if the kids are toddlers again....Is this a glimpse of my mid life crisis? My need to nurture and heal? Guilt for having allowed a -yikes-germ to get past me and infect my brood?? Or maybe this is a sign that all the REALLY serious and bad stuff in this life is FINALLY OVER..... and now I have the luxury to dote over the sniffles .....Maybe it's me who is no longer CONSUMED by the need to worry about stuff I can't change or fret over what may never actually happen in the uncertain life of a single Mom....
Maybe God (mine, yours, any.... I don't think God is so specific that there isn't room for many different interpretations ) has seen fit to shower some sunshine on my part of the world...in the form of LOVE (Thank you, Pa Ingalls, for giving me back what I thought was gone forever....------what I once thought couldn't exist , at least it wasn't working for me like it seemed to for the rest of the world...) It's amazing how LOVE can just turn an entire family around...... How EVERYTHING is better because there is someone to share it with, good and bad(which no matter HOW bad, isn't nearly as bad as doing it all alone!!!!!)

Yeah, maybe today the sniffles and strep throat are a GOOD thing... and I can only hope that every little sneeze in the future has my undivided attention.....LOVE IS HANDING SOMEONE A TISSUE?-----

Is THAT why people say God Bless You when you sneeze? Well, I guess He already has.


It's amazing how therapeutic unread writings can be......

I guess I am my own favorite audience....

Saturday, September 20, 2008

Little House on the Island

We've been splitting (chopping?) wood for the winter....We have a wood burning stove, which is kind of cool...not many people have them on Long Island.... it saves bunches of $$$$$$on heating oil.... but it's very Ma and Pa Ingalls....My husband (no we do not actually call him #3!!!!-well, may be sometimes as a haha) is our chief woodsplitter---I and our eleven year old "The Gamesta" (cause he LOVES th e world of videogames), drag the wood in a pull cart toward the house where we stack it (in neat little rows crisscross each level!)for the winter months. Our very reluctant 17 year old "Three toed sloth" (ie.-he's not a worker bee) and our some what reluctant, but also not home much of the time 21 year old are in charge of humping all that wood down the basement stairs each day in winter.
Yes we have indoor plumbing.... but it is great outdoor exercise, and I do love the smell of fresh cut wood.....And as Pa Ingalls says "There's only so much money...It can be given to the oil company or we can use it for vacations...." Pa knows that the word "vacations" ,which I live for, is probably one of the few words for which I will split and haul wood.
Any way, we chop, we stack, we burn......It IS one thing the whole family helps to provide us with... It's kinda empowering to be able to be semi-self sufficient in this day and age!!!!! And
it's really not as bad as I let on........ well, thank god it's not planting season, too! (haha)

Friday, September 19, 2008

At the end of the day

Some days just seem harder than others to get through with..The boss can be a little more cranky than usual, or maybe the laundry pile seems larger than normal... Could it be that those darn, pain in the neck, scruffy, dirty, adorable, play ful dogs just won't stop barking today.....Did I sigh out loud when my eleven year old rattled off yet another school supply to purchase(Does that announcement always have to come after eight thirty p.m., when I'm having my first fix of csi or law and order for the week?????

I stumbled upon a blog today quite accidentally....It's called the nieniedialogues.....and it follows the postings of a family whose sibling and her husband survived (?) a small plane crash....They were both critically injured, and daily postings are set to follow every painstaking recovery effort...Every skin graft, intubation, medically induced coma.... and yet the entire family has nothing but hope at the end of the day.....

Okay, so I'm not grateful for the cranky boss, the laundry, or even last minute errands in the dark (I probably should'nt even be driving after dark!!!!---sucks to be forties)----but at the end of MY day I am grateful I can hear those damn dogs and their annoying barking!!!! And I will still complain about something....but I AM grateful there are four sets of ears (7 if I include the dogs) to listen to that griping ... even if three sets (maybe 7) are rolling their eyes when they do it..........xoxo to my family ---rolling eyes and all