Do You Keep A Journal?

                                                                     Do you keep a journal?

                                                       They called them diaries back in 'the day'.

  1. I started my first one when I was in my teens but it was one of those tiny little books with scarcely enough room to write anything. All I entered was the scantiest info, like 'met Elbert Barton today' or a couple years later 'he proposed'.

2. It was not until 1999 when I read 'The Widow Down By The Brook' a well-documented diary written by a widow. It made me realize just how little I had revealed about my life in those 'tiny little diaries'.

3. I bought me some theme paper (college rule, of course) and set about documenting my life day by day. There soon came our move from Alabama to Virginia, my cancer scare, Elbert and my journey through his Alzheimers and finally my new life as a widow. I had become that widow "Down By The Brook".

4. I have scores of journals, mostly the back and white composition books that we used in school.
I find they are about the right size for a years worth of journaling. As I have needed, I have gone back to those older journals to recall certain events, find out info I had forgotten and relive those special times in my life. How I wish I'd kept more detailed journals before 1999. Oh well, we learn as we go along.

5. I wonder if my children will keep my journals after I am gone. Will they read them or will they be stored in a trunk or perhaps eventually tossed out. It doesn't matter. They have served a purpose for me and that's all that is important.

Linking with Willy Nilly Friday, Thankful Thursday and Little Things.

This is part of my Growing Old Gracefully series. 

Making an Art Journal

I have started a new project for my long, lonely Sunday afternoons. I am learning a lot... didn't know a thing about it to begin with. It's making an art journal. 

                                                                                                  Do you journal? 

How about dressing them up with fun stuff. I use colored pencils, pens, stamps sometimes. You could do whatever you wish. 

                                                                                     I do both, journaling and art journaling.

                                                                           Here's two pages that cover this past week. 

and my working space.

linking with Workdesk Wednesday

The Year is 1915.

                                                                                  Today is Thankful Thursday.  

I have to say that in some sense I am thankful that I do not live in the year 1915. However, times were so much more simple then and people had respect for one another and they helped their neighbor. I wish we had more of that today. 

A Big Moon

No Other Words Needed........

I am so thankful for moments like these and for Michelle's Thankful Thursday.

October's Party

                                              October is marching right along, Fall is in the air. 

         It's a wonderful time of the year so I thought I'd share a sweet poem with you today. 

Once when I was on my way home, I drove underneath some trees where the wind was making the leaves flutter to the ground. To me it felt like I was in the midst of colorful silk scarves. I loved it.

This poem reminds me of that time.

Please go over and check out Sweet and Simple and Outdoors

A dog named Sadie

I have never written a limerick in my life but these words came to mind and so I wrote them down.

                                                                   SADIE

                                                Once there was a little dog, Sadie.
                                                 Whose past life was a bit shady.
                                                    She stole my son's heart
                                                       They never will part
                                                    So, now he is the owner
                                                      of a dog named Sadie.

                          

My son headed back to Alabama this morning after spending a week here with me for Christmas. I so enjoyed his (and Sadie's) visit. 
                                                                                                                 

Five Things

Where have I been? Oh, somewhere... anywhere... getting lost.... getting busy....

But, here I am again. Watching and waiting for friends to call or write or comment. 

first of all I'd like to share a wintery picture from Virginia. Nope, it has not snowed... been too warm.... but this was from a previous winter and I am linking to My Town Shoot Out. 

It's Friday and I am ready to share my week with you. I am joining in Willy Nilly Friday Five and Five On Friday. Won't you join me?

1. Our Christmas party here at the Commons was the other night. I hadn't baked a cake in FOREVER but I baked one to take to the party. When I moved into this small apartment I had given my mixer to my grandson. But, I got it back and it is making a world of difference in how I view myself in the kitchen these days.

2. I recently ran across a journal I had written back in 1991 about a trip our daughter Susan took me and my hubby on to Europe. Oh my, what memories and what fun I had typing it into a word program so I can keep it on my computer. A small snippet of one day of our journey can be found HERE.

3. I was delighted to find out my son, Michael, will be joining us for Christmas. He lives over 900 miles away. There's nothing quite like having family around for the holidays.

4. Do you think it was all in my head? My son-in-law jokingly suggested that it was. I was sure that it wasn't .....but once I had decided I had a sliver of glass in my foot and I let said SIL look at it (that's when he said he couldn't see a thing perhaps it was all in my head) that all of a sudden I could walk on that foot just fine. Was it in my head? The Shadow knows. 

5. Do you remember the radio program 'The Shadow'? Naw, probably not. You all aren't as old as me. It started in 1930 and was one of the most popular radio shows ever. It began when the announcer asked 'What evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows'. Spooky stuff. 
                                                                       till next time..............
                                                                                             

A Trip To IHOP

I have some precious pictures that I wanted to share. Since it is Linda Kay's WIT AND WISDOM today and I definately wanted to join in with that, I decided I'd write a little story to go with these sweet, little pictures.

                                                        "D.'s Adventures with Syrup"

Today was the day that Nana had promised D. that they would go to IHop and get some pancakes. He was very excited. He loved pancakes and the gooey, sticky syrup that Nana would pour over them. He put on his socks and shoes, let Nana button his shirt and away they went.

It was a long drive to the town where IHop was. D's tummy growled and he grew very hungry. Once inside, he told the waitress 'I want pancakes'. He thought to himself, 'I'm a big boy now'. When the plate of golden pancakes arrived, the waitress sat the syrup down next to him. He glanced quickly at Nana, as his hand reached out and touched the handle.

"It's okay," Nana said, "But be careful". He lifted the glass pitcher and held it over his plate. "Slide the top back", Nana instructed.

 So, he did what she said. He was pretty good at doing what he was told.

Suddenly the syrup started streaming out of the pitcher, hitting his pancakes and spreading over his plate.

 "Enough, D." Nana said. So, he closed the lid and set the pitcher aside. He smiled. That had been such an adventure.

My Weekly Five

The week is over. 

I wonder where it went! 

Do you ever forget which day it is? It really is easy for me because I have no set schedule, no work to go to, no kids to get off to school. So, Monday's pretty same as Friday and I would have forgotten that it is Willy Nilly Friday and Five On Friday if I had not seen that my daughter did her post for those memes. 

#1. Do you remember me wishing I'd get a letter from someone ever once in awhile? Well, just look what I got in the mail the other day!! The prettiest card (handmade) with the sweetest note inside from Debbie in NJ. I was so thrilled. Thanks, Debbie.

#2. They have been power-washing our 132 apartment sized building where I live. Hoses strung everywhere, men on ladders, water dripping. But, the outside looks absolutely brand new it is so clean. Now, if the men would just come inside my apartment and power-wash it!! hehe.

#3. I was so bad Wednesday. My friend, Leslie, invited me to see "Big Stone Gap" at the movie theatre only it was not playing so to drown our sorrow we went to a local restaurant and ordered their "to die for" bread sticks (dripping with butter and herbs) and a salad. Well, we did just have a salad but I bet there was 1,000 calories in each bread stick and we each had two!! 

#4. Early one morning I noticed a line extending from the top of the TALL cell tower all the way to the ground. And, there was a man working on the first level. At least he is tethered to something so if he falls, he won't fall far. You can see the osprey's nest on the top level, sitting empty, waiting for the return of Mr. and Mrs. Osprey in the spring.

#5. I had an appt. with a plastic surgeon on Monday. Have to have two cysts removed, one from my cheek and one from my neck. No big deal but there's a funny story here. My GP made an appt. with a surgeon at the hospital two blocks from my house. There were no instructions, and besides, I was curious about this person who would be cutting on my face. So, I did what curious people do.... I looked him up on the internet. There he was.... Dr. ******, rectal and colon surgeon.  A call to my GP got that straightened out. Wrong end, folks. 
                                                                                                          Have a great weekend.
                                                                                                                 

Gone Dog

I had about forgotten what day it was.... WEDNESDAY and time for a favorite of mine Wit and Wisdom Wednesday . I hope you will join in, also.

My story......

He was gone. Just vanished out of thin air, it seemed. Michael called and called but his dog was just gone. 

It couldn't be. Smokey never wandered away from the house. True, the family had all piled into the car that morning and driven off but Smokey never followed. He would wander about the yard patiently waiting until they returned. So, where could he be?

The family searched high and low, calling out Smokey's name, whistling for him and waiting for his response. It grew dark and finally Michael crawled into his bed. He was about grown now but he couldn't stop the tears that flowed down his cheeks. He scruffed them away with his hand and tried to sleep. 

Days went by. Then weeks went by. The pain of not having Smokey around was still present. Would it ever go away? Probably not. Smokey just wasn't any dog. He'd come into this world while the family was living in California. As a small pup he'd made the move back east with them. The next couple of years were spent on a farm keeping eye on Michael's grandparents. His Dad said that the apartment on the Naval base didn't allow dogs. Smokey could wait. And, so he did until now the family lived on a farm themselves. He loved it there, dogging Michael's every step, going up and down the hills, exploring the bluff, playing in the creek. 

With the passage of time the initial pain softened a bit, life goes on. It was Sunday afternoon when the family drove into the driveway after church. Dad parked the car and suddenly they heard a bark. There was Smokey in the back of Dad's pickup truck. A neighbor said that they saw Smokey trying to make it back home so they loaded him into their car and brought him home.

No one ever knew who took Smokey nor where he had been, but that dog had lived through a hard time returning to the family that loved him. He lived to an old age, was peacefully put to sleep and laid to rest on the top of the bluff where he and Michael had played for so many years. His journey was finally over.

"PA"

Wit and Wisdom is a nice place where you choose a picture and then write a story to go with it.... or a poem.  It's a creative outlet for us frustrated writers. Do you have a story you'd love to tell... I bet Wit and Wisdom is the place for you. 

This is the story about a little girl whose father had died just before she was born.

She was a lonely lass, living in a big white house far down the country lane. Mama had to go to work each day. Her grandmother was busy with chores. There were no children living nearby to play with and so her grandpa was her only playmate. 

He was sick, too ill to farm and he often took to his bed. "Come", he'd say and so she'd gather up her paperdolls and line them up against his large frame now stretched out to rest. 

     "How many friends you got there?" he'd ask. 

She would name them all, picking each one up to show him who was who. 

"This one is Hedy Lamar. She's beautiful. And, this blonde is Lana Turner". 

He would smile and smooth her golden locks down, pat her cheek and then sigh. 

Knowing that his strength was spent, she put all the dolls back in a box and sprawled out on the floor on her tummy. Her favorite coloring book lay in front of her. She would spend hours coloring pictures of birds and cows and sometimes people. Mama said that it would not be long before she would start school in town. There would be lots of little girls and boys her age to play with then,  but for now she was content spending these precious moments with the tall, gentle man she called "Pa".