What It Is, What It Isn't

Love isn't just some words I say
Reading them by rote off a page
Little kid anticipating a gold star
Trembling, hoping, Teacher recognize me!
I'm reading real good today.

It's not an accidental habit
An uncontrollable tick
A compulsion that overrides my brain
In thoughtless repetition
As everyday routine as breathing in and out.

I will take this fragile hopeful feeling
And I will grow it in the cold dark moments
Greenhouse style with humid warmth
So in the sunshine glory days
It will cover us both and we can't help but grin.

Moment of Perfection

That moment when you turn on your car, and the best song in the universe is just starting, and you turn it up louder than  you usually would because it is that good, and the sky is pale, pale blue with the sun throwing it's chilly day glow around and even though you've become one of the three little kittens and lost your mittens, the steering wheel isn't so cold you can't stand to touch it, and you can't help but smile because everything about this moment, in this day, is absolute perfection.

The Fives Have It

Five things you don't know about me:

1. I take a lot of selfies.  I'll take a selfie on a family vacation because I know exactly the right angle that makes me look fantastic!

2. I'm crazy for vintage Christmas.  When eBay opens up, it wants to show me all the recently listed vintage Christmas things, and I usually let it.

3. I wear my hair up in a messy bun every night to sleep.  If I didn't pile it up high (crazy Kim Kardashian break the internet high) I die of heat stroke.  Even with the fan blowing on me.

4. I hate the word 'slacks.'  Consequently, you won't find any of those things in my closet!

5. I'm a terrible speller, the worst actually, but I read so much entertainment news, I had no problem at all spelling "Kardashian".....but I spelled 'consequently' wrong.

I know tons of stuff about:

1. Vintage (Christmas especially!)
2. Mac Davis
3. Walking three dogs at the same time
4. Forgiveness
5. Anne of Green Gables (I'm re-reading the series.  Again!)

I know nothing about:

1. Statistics
2. Mechanics
3. Training for a Triathlon
4. Raising more than two kids
5. The sanity of a one dog house

I believe in:

1. Don Williams
2. Love
3. Things I can't explain
4. My Mother senses will never stop working
5. Family

This post inspired by prompt #5 at Mama's Losin' It!

Show and Tell

As a child, show and tell was this glorious, wonderful, hideous day at school.  I'd search the house for just the right show and tell, the perfect treasure to share with my classmates, and most of the time I would not share it.  Getting up in front of the class was terror inducing for me!  But I never lost the joy of the hunt, and the hope that I might be brave enough to share.

Years ago, I bought this book about dogs, because it has a lovely page all about Beagles, and I love me some Beagles.

 But I also love me some books, so I couldn't bear to cut apart the book to look at the picture on a daily basis!  So instead, I put the book on my shelf and enjoyed the knowledge that it had pictures of Beagles.

Yesterday, I took a me day.  I had the day off and the desire to thrift shop, and the urge to drive far and away from my usual thrifting haunts.  I had a great time, pushing the cart up and down the aisles, piling the booty up, when out of the corner of my eye I saw a Beagle in the framed art section.

I pushed my way through two old people and scooped it up.  I didn't even think twice about the price ($14.99 is a bit spendy at a thrift store!) but I was so in love with the picture, I had to have it.

Because it is my book page, all framed up like I thought I might have done!  Now to find the perfect spot to hang it up....I mean, it can only sit at the table like a member of the family for a week before members of my human family might get tired of a dining room chair being claimed by a framed picture!

This post inspired by prompt #1 at Mama's Losin' It!

Real Talk

I may not always say the right thing.
Actually, I know I won't always say the right thing.
I know I won't always have the right words.
I will make mistakes,
I will make huge mistakes,
That make you harden your eyes
And give me a well deserved glare.
But I promise I will always try.
I will always give of myself, over and above,
I will always love and support and care for you,
All ways, all hows, all time,
Because that is what Moms do.

Inspired by prompt #5 at Mama's Losin' It!

Day Three

It's day three with the dogs, in this terrible daylight savings time, terrible because they can't actually tell time by looking a clock, even a digital one, so they let their bodies rule their roosts.  Thus, it's day three of dogs barking at 5:00 AM.

They like to argue that it is only 5:00 AM because we archaically still set our clocks ahead an hour.  It's really 6:00 AM and I should know how much they want to get out of crate at 6:00 AM.

Isn't that just like a dog?  Always trying to turn it back on you, so you know how wrong you are while they remain supremely right.

Or maybe that's just my dogs.

Pop Rocks and Soda

As a kid, before this glorious invention of the Internet, where I can literally tap a microphone button and ask a question that I have been pondering (recent queries include "do slugs eat their dead?" and "what is sweetbread?"), before all this glorious knowledge that is at my fingertips just for the asking, things that weren't true couldn't be proven so without perilous risk to life and limb.

Take Pop Rocks and soda: this is a long held belief that eating the candy Pop Rocks and drinking a carbonated beverage at the same time would result in your insides exploding.  It killed that kid that only likes Life cereal.

I know it's not true.  I know Mikey is alive and well and probably still loving Life cereal because, truthfully, it is the best cereal ever.  

But am I willing to put this knowledge to the test?

No way.

Knowing something isn't going to kill you, a truth that goes against years of believing otherwise, isn't easily swallowed.

Besides, just my luck I would get sick on it and be the one person in the world that can't ingest that much carbonation!  Better play it safe, and avoid that experiment.

While I'm at it, I'll also skip Mentos and soda.  

Long Term Knowing

Is blogging like being in a long term relationship?  The kind where you've been together for so long, you know every story before it's finished in the telling and you've heard it at least 10 times before.  You know the thoughts and opinions on things encountered on a daily bases because you've heard those same thoughts and opinions expressed all the time.  You've got nothing new to share.

I thought of that as I walked around in squeaky shoes.  I should blog about that, I thought, how much I absolutely hate squeaky shoes.  Oh, wait.  I wrote about that already.  Or  maybe I should write about getting a hole in my tights.  But I did that here and here and here too.  I could write about being cranky or how I turned that around to realize how thankful I am.  I could write about my kids or my dogs or  my husband or my sisters or my mom.

But I've done all that.  I've written all about all the things I think about, sometimes more than once.

So I guess my dear readers better strap in and get ready for some posts that they will know the ending to before I type the last word!  I'm feeling that old urge to write, and as I find my way, I might just repeat some.

It's The Last Time

I recently read this article and I felt its truth all the way to my soul.  As my son grew up, he stopped trick or treating, choosing to stay home and hand out candy, but my daughter has been the opposite.  She has embraced every Halloween as joyfully as she did when she was a toddler.

Every year since she reached a certain age, a certain maturity, a certain height, I cringed when people asked what I was doing for Halloween.  I will admit to worrying about how others would react when they heard I was taking my high school daughter and her friends trick or treating.  Would they think the girls were too old?  That I should tell them to leave this night of childhood joy behind and be young adults?  Would they be turned away from doors with the admonishment that Halloween is for kids?

The thing is, she is still a kid. She plans her costumes, she embraces the fun and excitement of this night, she knocks on her great-grandparents door to show off her outfit, she says thank you with real gratitude. She is a high school senior this year, this last year of true childhood, and I know this will be the last time I take her out, with the car full of laughing girls and sugar flowing through veins. I am going to savor it.  I am not ashamed of wanting her to stay young as long as she can.

There will be plenty of years to come when she will be standing on the other side of the door, handing out the treats.