About us – Page 22 – Gracious Rain

August 19, 2011March 2, 2017

Right Now

I am…

~wishing I was just a bit younger so I could play “dodge the sprinkler” with Miss Chomp on a hot summer day.

~anticipating all the magical things that can be made with a few old T-shirts…stick around and you’ll see!

~grateful that my children still find joy and friendship in a really good book.

~loving the very idea of fresh-from-the-garden cucumbers drizzled with a mix of Italian and Ranch dressing. You must try it!

~looking soo-soo forward to the new little ladies who are coming to live with us soon…stay tuned.

~longing for a bit more rain to water all the places I haven’t gotten to this week.

~deciding NOT to let Beany-the-quail-slayer out for the night…for obvious reasons.

Yeah, he’s on time-out.

~happy that my cute little–or not so little–nephew is home from Russia and that he’s amazed that Pizza Hut still exists and will still bring real, live American pizza right to your door.

~waiting, and waiting for a letter–paper in my hand letter–from my far away in Siberia boy–whose going to be in so much trouble if he doesn’t write to his mother very soon…and I mean it.

~marveling at the many newly discovered uses for a toddler cup holder.

~hoping that you too have a wonderful weekend my friends!

:} 555

August 18, 2011March 3, 2017

Little Dash

So I had this little Lyndi girl who liked to dart off in the opposite direction—whenever I called her–to the end of the block, if I wasn’t quick enough.

Perhaps you’ll be horrified to see my solution. That’s right–I had a kid leash for her. Not so much for everyday, of course, but this was all I could think of when we took a trip to Disneyland. I had nightmares of her taking off into a Time Square size crowd and never seeing her again. So, we simply attached her to the stroller that the baby sister was in, thinking that would at least slow her down a bit.

One particularly assertive lady saw our set up and said, “Wow. Are you afraid of something?” and I just smiled and said, “Well, not now.” Hmph.

It was weird, but it worked and we still have our little Lyndi–to this very day.

Oh, and you’ll be happy to know that she’s been leash free for over 20 years…and counting.

Now…if we could only find that thing again…

for Miss Chompy.

:} 556

August 12, 2011August 13, 2011

Positively Loving…

Teaching my favorite 3 year olds to teeter-totter without maiming each other.

Discovering that there is still one more fabulous Harry Potter book to read.

Lily’s amazing, ridiculous, almost scary ANIME face.

Choosing my very own magic wand–Rosewood, with Unicorn Tail core.

Um…I mean, it chose me…heh…heh.

Spending the whole day watching my favorite 2 year old while Mommy’s away.

The character revealing hand I ended up with in our last game of Apples To Apples.

My sleepy looking, far-away boy heading out to Finland to have his visa renewed.

What about you? What are you positively loving today?

562

August 11, 2011October 24, 2021

Dolphin Summer

There was this one magical summer when I was about seven that–if I remember correctly–my sister and I turned into fish. Or so it seemed.

Living in L.A. where we did, meant that many of our friends in other neighborhoods had pools. We, however, did not. So, naturally we spent most of the summer begging our mother to ask other people’s mothers if we could come swim in their pools. Every once in a while, it worked but not often enough.

So one day–in my little kid memory–my dad came home with a swimming pool–not a sissy, baby, splashy thing but a pretty close to real, live, up-to-your-neck, no kidding swimming pool. Oh, we got our jobs done before anyone was out of bed, I’ll tell you, so that we could get the ok from mom to jump in and swim our little guts out. Now this may not seem like such a big deal to you, but I could never actually swim before this summer. I was the usually the girl on the shallow side steps–or close by. But somehow this pool, this magical pool gave me super duper swimming powers, because suddenly, I could paddle and kick and do somersaults and dive from the second step and even cannonball–without holding my nose. And to my own amazement, I didn’t drown…not even once. It was like channeling Flipper.

Yes-sir-ee, that was one special summer all right.

Too bad that when–for some reason–the pool was no longer with us, I completely, entirely, irrevocably lost my magical swimming powers. Poof! Just like that. I was reduced to sitting on the steps at the neighbors pool or hopping up and down in the kiddie side. It was like a horrible remake of Flowers For Algernon where the scientists give some simple guy an operation and he becomes a genius and then he mysteriously turns “dumb” again and…drops dead. Very sad.

I’ll tell you how sad–

When I was a senior in high school, I took a beginning swim class–with the freshmen and a couple of kids from the middle school. Our final was to swim around in the deep end for 5 minutes without touching the side. Yeah, I pretty much drowned and they had to fish me out with a net. Got a D+ if you must know.

But I have this picture–this one picture to prove that the magical dolphin summer was real and I didn’t just dream it…and best of all…

I haven’t dropped dead.

So ha.