"WHILE I WAS SLEEPING!!"

The garden is coming along and I have been nursing my basil back from almost total annihilation by the slugs and sow bugs. Harvesting Arugala daily for my lunches. Yum. 

 But I just figured that the squash had a ways to go.  After all, wasn't it just yesterday that it was planted? Then Ernie mentioned today that I had some "baby" zucchinis and I had better take a look. YOW!!  There were already some "adults" waiting for harvest.  

 INVASION OF THE  ZUCCHINI MONSTERS.

 One day you have an innocent looking squash blossom, then seemingly, overnight it morphs into a 2 pound, foot long zucchini that you can barely carry to the kitchen.

Time to get out my recipe book:

 1000 WAYS TO FIX ZUCCHINI

IT IS THE THOUGHT THAT COUNTS!?!?!?

"I am going to clean the house for you tomorrow and wash your car," Kevin said to me last night as I was about to go to bed. Wow, I thought that sounded just great. 

 

BREAKFAST IN BED!

 I woke up to my boys boisterously bantering in the kitchen and warned to STAY IN BED!  Shortly after, I was served a home-cooked breakfast and the Sunday paper. El had prepared the waffles from scratch and served an excellent cup of coffee. I also got a lesson how to properly make a great cup of joe, which I hadn't a clue. 

EAT YOUR HEART OUT!

 I had to try it myself and found it was even good without the cream and sugar.  Here is how: Use a cone with filter.  Hot water(not boiling) is poured directly over the coffee grinds which then drips into the cup. 

"This makes a very true cup of coffee, bringing out the full flavor of the coffee bean without compromise!"

  The morning was quite enjoyable, hanging out with the boys.  Never a dull moment!!

 Then Kevin and I spent a couple hours at the gym working our butts off!!. . . Now I am just relaxing, reminiscing about all those "mother moments" through the years!! The thrill of victory, the pain, the agony of the feet!?!?

 And the clean house and car shampoo. . . . Maybe next year!?!?!?
 It was a great idea at the time. . . . .  And after all it is the thought that counts.

FLO

FLO

It is NURSES WEEK. . . and I just thought we should give Flo a few kudo's for all she did to lay the foundation for nursing as we know it today. . . 

BABY FLO

When I was in nursing, I sort of resented her cause she was held in such high esteem and  "what would Flo have done?"  was reverberating in my head as I did 'unlike Flo' things.  But now as I have learned more about her. . . She was a pretty incredible woman.  I would have loved her maverick, no-nonsense attitude. I can just see her stepping into a hospital unit, opening the curtains, and throwing open the windows, splashing the room with color from her magic wand.

"I use the word nursing 
for want of a better.
 It has been limited to signify little more than the administration of medicines and the application of poultices. 

It ought to signify the proper use of fresh air, light, warmth, cleanliness, quiet, and the proper selection and administration of diet."

She was one empowered woman!! And way ahead of the times!! One of the first woman activists to making the world a better place!! 

She had a voice and she used it!!

"The very first requirement in a Hospital that 
 it should do the sick no harm. 

"Women never have a half-hour in all their lives that they can call their own, without fear of offending or of hurting someone." [1852] 

WOW--Not much has changed in 2012!!!!!!!!

"The object and color in the materials around us 

actually have a physical effect on us, on how we feel.” 

“I am of certain convinced that the greatest heroes are those who do their duty in the daily grind of domestic affairs whilst the world whirls as a maddening dreidel.”  

 

" How very little can be done under the spirit of fear."

"Nursing is an art: 
and if it is to be made an art, it requires an exclusive devotion as hard a preparation,
 as any painter's or sculptor's work; 
for what is the have to do with dead canvas or dead marble,
 compared with having to do with the living body?
 It is one of the Fine Arts:

 THE FINEST OF FINE ARTS."

Retired nurse

CHILDREN NEED YOUR PRESENTS MORE THAN THEY NEED YOUR PRESENCE!

GERBER BABY!

BABY MAGIC BABY

  Maybe that is not exactly what Jesse Jackson said. . . But that is pretty much what my boys might say!! Today marks a milestone for my son. . . He has finally leaped into the 20's. 

 And we all survived the teen (alien) years!! Whoopee. 

 I think I have heard that:

 "small children interfere 

with your sleep,

 big children--your life!" 
 

 But casting all seriousness aside. . . .I can't help but remember that precious small child. 

THIS TAKES EXTREME TALENT!.

 
I always envisioned smothering my children with love, but to be honest, there were moments I had to restrain myself from smothering them with a. . . pillow.

 

The years roll by and Kevin has grown into a fine young man with a great sense of humor and many talents  as you can see from all these pictures!!

RANDY NEWMAN INPERSONATOR

ROBOT MAN

HERE ARE SOME FAMOUS QUOTES. . . FROM THE MOUTH OF BABES!

Elliott watching Kevin's baby video: "That's before I was mean to Kevin."

Kevin looking at a picture of Grandad and Grandma's wedding picture: "Oh, that was back before they had wrinkles."

Kevin: "Daddy, I think your gray hair has been creeping up on you--You need some of that stuff to make you look younger! "ONLY MEN'S" that turns your hair brown. Did your hair use to be brown?"

Listening to music on the airplane with earphones: "Dad they're playing that old fashioned music like you are."

Me: "Princes Di loved children!"
Kev: "Yeah, she would have loved me if she had met me!"

Kev:  "Even when your dead we can have your birthday.  George Washington is dead and we still celebrate his birthday."

Kev praying the night before his first day of kindergarten: "Help me not to be shy tomorrow and help me not to get a tatoo like my dad has."

My favorite--the night before his birthday: 

"Tomorrow I'll be 4 and I will still be your precious boy!"

STILL MY PRECIOUS BOY!

MINDFUL EATING or BREAKFAST REFLECTIONS

I was reading an article about how the "Serenity Diet" can change your body shape with your mind. Researchers UCSF, were examining the link between mindfulness and abdominal fat (the most dangerous kind) in overweight women. The findings indicate that meditative techniques can change how you eat—so food becomes a choice rather than a habit. Here is one of the training exercises:

Take ten minutes to eat three raisins. Examine their texture and color. Notice how they feel in the palm of your hand; notice how they smell. Eat them slowly, one by one, chewing patiently to savor the flavors. You are cultivating your ability to eat with awareness: When you focus your attention on your food, you derive more pleasure from each bite and ultimately eat less.

With this in mind this morning, I decided that I would head out to the back deck with my bowl of hot cereal and mug of Mexican coffee, sans lap top (I am usually multitasking while I am having breakfast) and just savor each bite while enjoying my back yard. Thinking that maybe I could stahl or slow the middle-age spread that I am experiencing. (Now who am I kidding. . . MIDDLE AGE? That's factoring that the average life span is 120 yrs.) I had taken a couple of bites, slowly enjoying the flavor and texture, when I noticed that things were literally humming. In minutes, I had forgotten my meal and was walking around the yard, enjoying the beauty of this spring day. The apricot tree was in full bloom and was buzzing with life! I realized that I am so enamored with the fall leaves and color, but now as things are starting a new cycle with buds and baby leaves, it is just as beautiful in a different way. Needless to say, about an hour later, I did finish my breakfast with new appreciation of not only my meal, but my surroundings. Can't say I noticed any earth-shattering change in my body shape, but my mind felt great!!

It's being here now that's important.
There's no past and there's no future.
Time is a very misleading thing.
All there is ever, is the now.
We can gain experience from the past,
but we can't relive it;
and we can hope for the future,
but we don't know if there is one.

THE NEIGHBORHOOD

Springtime is the land awakening.
The March winds are the morning yawn.

Yes, Spring has brought flock of birds of all color out. On my drive home from work, I watched as a flock of redwing black birds attacked a hawk as he was just minding his own business sitting on the fence. He was harrassed so much, he finally took off. I guess this is not unusual. Red-wing BB are quite territorial and the hawk was evidently hanging out in their "space".

I had to stop and take some pics of this field of wildflowers. The red-wings loved them too and were everywhere belting out their conk-a-leeeee song. Evidently, someone else really liked this spot, too, cause the next day. . . they dumped a dead body! Hope I didn't leave any fingerprints!!




Meanwhile, back at the ranch. . . . we have a cute little couple waddling around. I anticipate that it won't be long before we see a few ducklings joining them.

Now April is bringing showers. . . I love the dark sky of an impending storm!!

“April comes like an idiot, babbling and stewing flowers.”

NIGHT BANDIT

We were noticing that the cat food was disappearing rapidly out in the shed. When Ben went out at night, he was going CRAZY about "something out there". Then heard the cats hissing and yowling. Next, the 5 gallon container of cat food was methodically opened and dumped on the floor. The container, that takes me a crow-bar to open. . . So it seems that we have a night intruder coming in the lets-put-in-a-cat-door-so-Nephrikitty-has-easy-access-to-her-food-DOOR and using his little coony fingers to creat chaos. Didn't take much to attract him right into the trap.


But did he have an attitude!!

He definitely won't be harrassing the cats again.


I just can't picture Princess chumming up to him or his pals, either!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SWEET 13

Can't let this day go by with out being thankful for life and health.

Yes, once again, I am celebrating my bone marrow birthday!!
13 years ago was day zero. My marrow had been wiped out with total body radiation and high dose chemo to eradicate malignant cancer cells. Day zero my purged ("cleansed") baby stem cells (which were collected earlier in the month after high dose chemo) were infused and then I just had to wait for them to stimulate my marrow to produce healthy cells. "Watch and wait" was more like "watch and worry"! A rather barbaric process to be honest, but was relieved somewhat by a morphine induced "drug haze" with just a touch of a button. Pictured here: Day 11 The first day I produced a very few new cells. I also had very few platelets, which explains the bruising.

I am glad it is all behind me!!

“Illness is the night side of life, a more onerous citizenship.Everyone who is born holds dual citizenship, in the kingdom of the well and in the kingdom of the sick. Although we all prefer to use the good passport, sooner or later each of use is obliged, at least for a spell, to identify ourselves as citizens of that other place.” --Susan Sontag--

The climb is never easy,
but the view is worth every step. . .

Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul.
And sings the tune
Without the words,
and never stops at all.
--Emily Dickinson--

WINTER--MISERABLE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . SUMMER---MISERABLE WITH LESS CLOTHES

These words were spoken by my spouse who gets "grouchy" when the weather does not suit him. . . .which living in the Central Valley with it's temperamental weather often puts him in a bad mood. He was So-Cal raised, Mr. Surfer boy, and evidently, back in the dark ages, the weather there was probably 70 year round.

I, on the other hand spent years in Michigan where snow was pretty much 6 months out of the year and summers were a sauna. Since I am an antique, this was before snow blowers and other snow removal conveniences and light-weight polartec. Schools NEVER had snow days, otherwise, we would never finish the school year. (Yeah, I had to walk a mile uphill both ways in about 10 layers of clothes.) What I am trying to say, I think the Calif Central Valley is just fine, even if instead of snow, we get a little fog or rain. It is by no means miserable for me.

This winter was very mild and dry, but there is always MARCH MADNESS! Which is very unpredictable.

This March has not disappointed.

As you know from my morning drive, I like to focus on the beauty of the local country and be mindful of those moments of "grace". The almond orchard on my road became a sea of blossoms and was alive with the buzzing of bees. Everywhere there is an intimation of renewal, of restoration and new life. The wind came along and then there was a blizzard of blossoms, leaving the ground looking like fresh fallen snow--pink snow!

SPRING HAS SPRUNG!

"Springtime is the land awakening.
The March winds are the morning yawn."

DON'T STOP LIVING IN THE RED. . . .

So one of my friends was traveling to Toronto and look who just happened to be traveling first class with him. This is Annie. She started her trip in LA and even with several stops, just sat quietly in her seat. She didn't even partake of the airline food. I just thought she was adorable. Wonder how often she has to get a dye job to keep that "look"! or get her roots retouched?