Turns!

I have been away from my blog but have a very good reason ~ a new grandson! He’s super and sweet, a bit of an early arrival but all okay! 

My life has taken so many turns and some days I am surprised by where I am.  The other day, I was thinking of my age.  I’ve written about my age before and its not something that I get super hung up on or anything but, I am really surprised by my age at times.  Even more surprised by my hubs age! Seriously, I am married to an old man.  Not really but when I hear him say something along the line of “Now that I am almost 60...” I think to myself “Wow, he’s old” and have to remember that although younger than him, I am not far behind.  Now, I’m a grandmother to three beautiful babies and I am surprised at the turns it has taken to get here.  But, here I am! 

A few weeks ago, our son and his beautiful fiancee arrived to stay with us for a few weeks.   We talk weddings and we talk jobs, music, travel.  They will be here only until she moves on to her next assignment as a travel occupational therapist.  In the meantime, we are enjoying the time and learning more about the boy we raised that is now a man.  Speaking of age, it surprises me when I think about this soon to be 32 year old that is my boy!  He said to me yesterday “I use to ride my bike all over town” and I realized yes, when he was 15...and that was a very long time ago.  

The big benefit that comes from them being here, however, is the cooking.  He’s a fine cook and she’s as creative as can be.  She thinks “Well, why wouldn’t that be good in there?” and in the dish it goes.  She is also a vegetarian, which brings a new and exciting element to our evening meals.  Several times in the last couple of weeks I have come home to surprises from them at the table.  

We all know how boring our weekly menus can become...cooking the same thing week after week.  But, with them here, it’s shaken things up a bit and may even challenge me to think a bit more creatively for the menu, as I want to be considerate of her vegetarianismness..(yes, I made that word up).  

One day last week I reported at work that I went home the night before to find falafel and salad and other yummie goodness.   We talked about how nice it was to get home from work, find the meal ready, tasty and different. One of my favorite co-workers stomped her foot and said “I want a vegetarian to come stay at my house!”  So, there’s my challenge to you...invite a cooking vegetarian to stay at your house! You won’t be sorry! 

Spacey

The space exhibit at the art center where I work is coming down next week ~ it's been up since January and leaves March 11.  I'll miss it.  We have had about 700 school children visit this last two months, the center is often alive with little voices.  


The great thing about our center is that it is both art gallery and art education.  There are classes there almost every day and we have a close relationship with Michiana Industries and Social Learning.  We host social events and sponsor the summer art festival, which is in its 35th year.  It's an all around great place. 


I hope more of my friends and family are exposed to art in their community this year.  Whether its coming to see our center or another location, expose yourself to some art.  Last week, we had a young man playing his cello in the gallery which houses the Earth from Space exhibit and it was awesome.  To have the music and the images together.  Well, now, awesome is a word but it's not even close ~ it was goose bumpily.  


I remember being hesitant to visit something I was not familiar with...an art gallery? Okay, I'll give it a shot.  It made me apprehensive.  What if I don't look like everyone else? What if I don't fit in? But art, and art education, is for everyone.  Even you. 


Our local media did a fabulous job, along with our director of marketing, of getting the word out to people about this exhibit and we have seen many new faces.  It's great to hear the "Wow" and "I had no idea this was here".  


My center is supported by donations and grants...not taxpayer money.  We have a membership opportunity as well, with members receiving a couple of little perks for their investment.   Shameless plug.  However, if you are looking for a worthy not for profit to donate to, or want to support art education in your county, let me know and I'll get you some information.  


Come see us at Lubeznik Center for the Arts before space moves on; or come see us when the circus sideshow exhibit goes up in about a week! Long live the arts! 

Bring on the chickens

If you are like me and have been married for more than, oh, let’s say 15 or 20 years, then you may need new stuff.   A few years ago I replaced all my towels.  My old towels went in to the rag basket, making hubs a happy man and my new towels, purchased one or two a pay period over a few weeks, went in to the linen closet.  This made me happy.  I also replaced a set or two of sheets,  when they were on sale and when the color was right.  I even bought extra sheet sets! Since the kids were all grown up and out, I even had a guest room. 

My towels are okay as I have since remodeled bathrooms and have a few newer towels and the sheets are holding up just fine.   But, my appliances.  Goodness.  Replaced when the kids were in high school, they are not doing so well.  I have duct tape on the bottom of my microwave door, a broken handle on the fridge and last week an oven knob tumbled to the ground and rolled around my feet.  

That brings me to the television.  A few years ago we purchased, along with dining room furniture and our bedroom furniture, a beautiful oak entertainment cabinet for our modest television.  This again was purchased after saving, planning for it,  and while the kids were in high school...so 10 or 12 years ago.  We’d like a new television, a flat screen to mount on the wall, which would save quite a bit of space in our small living room.  But, what about this beautiful oak cabinet? It’s too deep for the flat screen, too deep for a blanket cabinet, can’t be converted to a china cabinet...but, it can’t be worthless, can it? 

It’s a dinosaur and on one hand, it’s holding me back.  On the other hand, its beautiful, solid, oak and matches all my other furniture.  I’ve talked to the amish furniture makers, where I purchased it, and they said it would cost as much to repurpose the wood as to buy another, more modern and appropriate cabinet for today’s technology.  But besides that, they weren’t really interested in the wood.  

Then I realized that this is how it happens.  This is how things become the antiques of the future.  Have you ever wondered why people in the past put dining room cabinets out in the barn, or out back or even used as firewood?  Why the victrola was in the chicken coop?  I guess I am going to have to get some chickens, so this entertainment center will have a useful life.  

Changes

Who would have ever thought we would have a winter as mild as this one has been?  I know its not over yet, but, this has been truly unusual.  I haven’t really decided if I am happy or not about it.  If I had known in advance, there may be some things I would have planned a bit differently than how I actually spent my January, and this much of February. 

One thing I would not have changed is the amount of time I have had to spend with my kids and their families.  Having a new baby keeps one family a bit closer to their home, and another expecting her baby any day brings so much excited anticipation.  The son and his fiance are getting their next phase, the wedding, planned and organized.  Even with all those “goings on” there has been much time spent together, and that’s a good thing.  There’s a lot going on in my little corner! 

So, I decided to shake things up a bit and had my hair cut shorter this week.  I’m not sure I’m 100% in to it but its only hair, right? I found myself remembering about those days when I was younger, with friends who were obsessed with their hair.  Were you one of those girls? Or were you like me, a bit more cavalier about the whole hair thing? Keep it clean and brushed, and you are good to go?  As a teenager, I had friends who were in tears over too short bangs or a tease job gone wrong.  

Last week a relative posted a picture of herself and a return to her naturally curly hair.  She’s been straightening it for years.  I remember her older sisters with irons...literally ironing their hair, on an ironing board.  You see, my cousins really had some curl.  They also use to roll it on cleaned out frozen orange juice cans...never could find rollers big enough for their needs.  I don’t know if they cried over their curls as I didn’t see it, but, I bet there was a level of frustration there that I could not do justice in the retelling!  

Actually,  hubs has naturally curly hair, too.  He would work to straighten his hair, and that’s what I met.  But, I saw pictures of his wild, crazy hair and tried to place the guy I was just getting to know into that scene.  He was a bit buttoned up you see so it was hard to tie the two together.   Shortly after we started dating, he went golfing with a friend, and it rained.  He came in with his hair sticking out all over his head.  I thought it was adorable, and much easier than what he must have been going through every morning.  I convinced him to let it go “natural” and since it was the days of disco and bell bottom pants, he looked just right.  

I’ve tried different things with my hair over the years ~ perms, dyes and cuts.  I have tried getting my hair to do something it doesn’t naturally want to do, like curl.  I am the opposite of my cousins and hubs in that department...but I tried. I’ve always thought “Why not?” and hear the words of my dad in my head “Nothing between a good haircut and a bad haircut but 3 days” so would be game for almost anything.  

I have never been a blonde... 

That was super!

I’m going to jump on a band wagon here and say congratulations to Indianapolis for doing an outstanding  job hosting the Super Bowl this year.  We had the opportunity to go downtown on Saturday night before the game and really had fun.  It was cold, wet and crowded…three of my least favorite things ever, but, Indianapolis showed us a fun time. 

Returning to more normal, you may remember a few months ago when around my birthday I said I took stock more at birthday time than at New Year’s as far as “resolutions” or whatever.  I don’t make resolutions as I break resolutions and then I feel bad about myself and that’s not very cool.  However, I do commit to what I will call “try to dos”.   So,  I made a couple around my birthday and well, it’s not going great but no one is keeping score.   I hope.

My first one is to keep my email accounts cleaned up.  Oh my word, like junk mail on my countertop, my inbox is a fright.  (Yes, junk mail on my countertop is also a try to do and is going less great than my email inbox.) Here’s the thing, I haven’t mastered the fine art of what to keep, setting up folders and clicking delete.  I have cut way back on my work at home jobs so I don’t get nearly the email in from those clients as I had been getting and I maybe could even close one of my email accounts…but not yet.  I forget about the email account I have with Comcast and if it weren’t for my iPhone, I probably would never read what comes into it.  Why does a little ol’ grandmother need so many email accounts?  I ask myself every day, folks, every day.  Don’t judge.

My second try to do is to use my iPhone the way it is intended.  I’ve mastered Words with Friends, and have finally been able to maneuver my way around the on screen keyboard…sort of…but I know there are many apps out there that would be of some benefit, if I only learned how to use them.  That’s going to be a big one for me in 2012.  There are a lot of apps out there that are of absolutely no benefit and the key will be to know the difference.  I’m trying out a couple now and this really maybe could work…if my eyesight holds up.

I will fill you in on more try to dos as time goes on, and update you on my progress of the two mentioned here today.   Before I forget,  I will also tell you I am still using the WEN hair care product and things go well.  With my thinning hair it’s not easy to see much difference, but the youngest daughter who is still using it tells me she can go longer between shampoos (oops! Cleansings…not shampoo, shampoo means lather and there is no lather)  and has also discontinued using a straightener as likes what she  now achieves with just a blow dryer.  It took several cleansings and getting use to the product to get to that point, which is one of the things others say about it, but she likes it.  

Surprise!

I love unexpected, good, surprises. 

The first.  I was asked to sit at a booth representing my workplace at an event.  The event was on Sunday, I said sure and then almost immediately regretted it.  Tying up several hours on a winter Sunday? Was I nuts? But, I went, sat, spoke and smiled and had a generally okay time.  

My surprise came near the end of the event.  I had not taken the time to walk around as I was seriously not that interested in what else was on display but, a booth started to dismantle late in the day, opening my view up a bit across the room.  Looking past the dismantled booth I saw a familiar little face of a friend of my youngest.  Someone I hadn’t seen in a few years...at least, I thought it was her.  I sat there for a bit and thought, gee, she looks more grown up than when I last saw her.   Her hair a bit different but those are her high cheekbones and I’ll know her gorgeous eyes and smile when I get closer.  Now, its risky to walk up to a young person and say “Hey” as they may turn a blank stare to you...it’s happened.  But not this young lady, she grinned and gave me a big hug.  I was so glad to see her and it was so unexpected.  Made my day. 

The day got even better when I returned home and found hubs had put a pot of chili on the stove and totally cleaned the kitchen.  Oh my word, what a treat, and also unexpected.  When you come home every day to cooking and cleaning up, sorta, the kitchen, to walk in to a meal already underway is divine.  To also have a clean kitchen, golly.  

I hope you have equally good surprises this week! 

To be, or be what?

Using the right word or phrase is such an amazing and tricky concept, isn't it? Finding the right words to say, the right phrasing, the way to put together a sentence so that you aren’t misunderstood.  Its a gift for some and a challenge for others, to be sure.  

I often am misunderstood, and misunderstand, both the written and spoken word.  Sometimes, I scramble to apologize or explain.  Sometimes, I struggle to make it through the end of the sentence before I blow a gasket...only to find, phew, I’m glad I didn’t react as I was headed down the wrong path to the meaning behind the words.  

I wish I had a nickel, as my dad was fond of saying, for everytime I misunderstood someone’s intention behind a word or words.  As difficult as it is to understand the spoken word at times, it is even more so to grasp the meaning of the written word. 

My example for today? I have been checking out blogs and websites this morning and came across an entry I thought I would be interested in as we approach spring...”Tips for the distressed curvy dresser”.   Cool..that describes me and my fashion sense!  I could use some advice, a tip would help me understand straight legs vs. boot cut maybe, or how long (or not) my sweater should be.  I am perfectly distressed over some of the decisions I have to make every day! This is awesome! 

Nope, refinishing an antique chest of drawers, folks.