Mother's Day

By Gertrud Mueller Nelson

I feel like my mother was a remarkable woman; she was talented in many ways and very loving, especially to me, her only child. We were good friends all my life, which is why I still miss her today on this American holiday of Mother's Day, even though she died 22 years ago.

As I ponder this, I realize that I never wondered that she might have missed her mother, too. Until I had children of my own, I never thought too much of my mother having emotions other than the irritation she sometimes exhibited towards my father and/or me, otherwise she was pleasant.

I suppose it is difficult to empathize with someone else's feelings unless one has experienced it in a similar capacity. She must have missed her family during all the years we moved around with my dad in the Marine Corps, but never shared anything with me. (I was self-centered and only thought of how moves were difficult for me!) When her parents died, she did not express her loneliness or regret at all. I was an adolescent at those time and would have been old enough to understand some of that--or so I think now.

I wish she had shared some of those feelings with me, but she was of the generation that did not complain. In fact, that is how she brought me up: "Don't bother people with your problems." It has taken me years to realize that expressing sad memories and/or emotions is not "complaining," which I am still learning how to do.

As people are expressing on FB and elsewhere, each female is the result of her mother and her children (if she has any). I am fortunate to have my four children, two with loving spouses, who are continuing to grow me into the person I am, as are my two granddaughters. I will always be thankful for the mother I had.

Happy Mother's Day to all: I hope you are able to treasure memories of your mother today.

Happy 4th of July!

Illustration by Bess Bruce Cleaveland (1925)

 

 

With thanks to Good Books for Young Souls. Go there to read about the young girls who helped to make the flag that flew over Fort McHenry in Baltimore, MD, which is the flag that Francis Scott Keyes saw and was inspired by to write "The Star-Spangled Banner."

Groundhog Day!

Groundhog Day

Celebrate this unlikely oracle,
this ball of fat and fur,
whom we so mysteriously endow
with the power to predict spring.
Let's hear it for the improbable heroes who,
frightened at their own shadows,
nonetheless unwittingly work miracles.
Why shouldn't we believe
this peculiar rodent holds power
over sun and seasons in his stubby paw?
Who says that God is all grandeur and glory?

Unnoticed in the earth, worms
are busily, brainlessly, tilling the soil.
Field mice, all unthinking, have scattered
seeds that will take root and grow.
Grape hyacinths, against all reason,
have been holding up green shoots beneath the snow.
How do you think spring arrives?
There is nothing quieter, nothing
more secret, miraculous, mundane.
Do you want to play your part
in bringing it to birth? Nothing simpler.
Find a spot not too far from the ground
and wait.

~ Lynn Ungar ~

(Blessing the Bread)

Pre-Holiday Griping

While re-reading the FF "mulleygrubs" poem, I decided that I needed to learn more about its author, Ginger Andrews. She was born in 1956 in Oregon and works as a janitor and cleaning lady; she has also won many awards for her poetry. Her two books of poetry are out of print. A search of the internet leads one to sites featuring her poems, especially Garrison Keillor's The Writer's Almanac. Here is another of her humorous poems about Thanksgiving. This one is about the approaching holiday season (like on MINDIGHT of Thanksgiving Day!):

“Pre-Holiday PMS,” by Ginger Andrews, from An Honest Answer (Story Line Press). 
 

I don't want to be thankful this year.
I don't want to eat turkey and I could care
if I never again tasted
your mother's cornbread stuffing.
I hate sweet potato pie. I hate mini marshmallows.

I hate doing dishes while you watch football.
I hate Christmas. I hate name-drawing.
I hate tree-trimming, gift-wrapping,
and Rudolph the zipper-necked red-nosed reindeer.
I just want to skip the whole merry mess—
unless, of course, you'd like to try
to change my mind. You could start
by telling me I'm pretty and leaving me
your charge cards
and all your cash.

Cupcake Avery for Halloween

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween! Without children at home, I think of Halloween as being connected with candy, so I have bags of chocolate fun bars. None have been opened yet; Chuck and I haven't started snacking on chocolate, which I hope we'll skip this year.

Avery is going to be a cupcake for Halloween. I can hardly wait to see pictures of her!

Happy 4th of July!

Memorial Day

" Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. "

John 15:13

They are in formation. They are not marching, they are not in battle; no, they are at rest and in peace. We remember on this sacred day those who answered the call to duty.

Honor and sacrifice is their gift to us all.

From Brother John, John Gaudraeu at Perfect Peace and Joy.

I am honoring the memory of all and especially my parents who served in the Marine Corps for WWII and my dad in the Korea Conflict and in Vietnam before he retired from the Marine Corps.

Happy Valentine's Day!

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in

my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)

i fear no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

- e. e. cummings ~

Happy Thanksgiving!

And dedicated to my two vegetarian daughters:



I hope they'll enjoy today despite the tradition of eating dead meat, though they will not do that.

Friday Five: Thanksgiving

I've been home from Russia for less than a week, and in less than a week it is Thanksgiving Day in the USA (Nov. 24). So for this Friday Five, answer these questions (and if they don't apply to you, list five things you are grateful for):

1. Where will you be on Thanksgiving Day? With whom?
This year we will be staying in Corpus Christi. Our two youngest children, MJ and BJ, will be with us.

2. Are there any family traditions or memories associated with Thanksgiving?
Mostly it's food and the Thanksgiving Parade on tv.

3. What will be on your Thanksgiving menu?
Turkey with stuffing, candied sweet potatoes (NO marshmallows), cranberry sauce (not from a can), broccoli. We always used to have a jello salad, but oldest son wanted that more than the others and we may not have it here in CC this year.

4. Are you trying anything new this Thanksgiving?
Instead of pumpkin pie, I am going to try making pumpkin cheesecake for dessert.

5. What is the weather forecast for this day (next Thursday)?
The high temperature is projected to be 80 degrees F.

Moscow, Russia

Painting on the wall of the Russian United Methodist Seminary in Moscow.

With only one day to tour Moscow, we visited the Methodist Seminary in Moscow and toured the city on a bus on Nov. 3, 2011. Read about the seminary here.

This building is the Russian United Methodist Seminary.

This was right before a holiday (Unity Day) and so the traffic was quite congested. It turned out that Red Square was closed to the public, because groups were rehearsing for the upcoming military parade for the following Monday:

I later learned that:
"Thousands of Russian soldiers and military cadets marched across Red Square to mark the 70th anniversary of a historic World War II parade.The show honored the participants of the Nov. 7 1941 parade who then headed directly to the front to defend Moscow from the Nazi forces. The parade Monday involved about 6,000 people, many of them dressed in World War II-era uniforms."

Read more: http://www.seattlepi.com/news/article/Russia-marks-anniversary-of-1941-military-parade-2256020.php#ixzz1dp7k1Rfc

We took the metro (subway) to the train station where we met our bus and got our luggage. The artistry of the metro stations was amazing, with statues, mosaics, interesting ceilings. In the Revolution Square metro station, there are bronze statues depicting Soviet workers. One has a dog that is reputed to give you good luck if you rub its nose, which we all did:

Then we boarded a train from Moscow to Vologda, a trip that took us almost 8 hours. We slept in cars which had four bunk beds and arrived at 5:30 am the next day.

Memories of July 4th

I don't have that many memories of July 4th. You would think that my childhood growing up on military bases (mostly Marine) would highlight patriotic observances, but I do not remember any. That seems odd from my perspective of being 60 years old, so I thought I would try to recall any Independence Day celebrations I could:

• The one I remember most vividly is one I spent on the beach at Port Hueneme Naval Base in California when I was in high school visiting my long-time friend Nancy. Her family brought us to the beach for the fireworks display. It was fun, and I remember her younger brother (who is now a linguistics professor in Australia) running around--probably Nancy, her sister, and I were moving around, too.

• It used to be that you could see the fireworks from my parents' house in Bellingham, WA. I remember sitting alone on the couch, watching them when my mother was dying of pancreatic cancer. Little did I know that she would die only ten days later (in 1992).

• In 1979, when I was pregnant with our first baby, our neighborhood had a gathering at the local park, which we declined to attend--as I was very pregnant and it was so hot (like today)! My mother was visiting from WA, waiting for DC's arrival--and she wasn't used to the heat either. He was a week overdue and finally arrived on July 6.
  

• On a few occasions, we took our children down to the waterfront grassy areas here in Corpus Christi, TX with massive crowds of other people. It was always very hot and humid. . . and buggy. (There are over 200 varieties of mosquitoes, and all of them can be found here!) I mostly remember doing this with our two younger children. I wonder if they liked it. . . .

We are having a very quiet 4th of July. CB will grill chicken. Otherwise, we are staying in our nice, cool and air-conditioned house. (At 5 pm it is 94 degrees F. For my son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter, it is 100 degrees F. in Austin!)

I hope you are enjoying the 4th of July wherever you are!

Happy 4th of July!

Go to The Star-Bangled Banner to learn about the preservation and restoration of the flag raised at Baltimore’s Fort McHenry to celebrate a crucial victory over British forces during the War of 1812 on September 14, 1814.

Quick facts about the flag are here.

Siblings

Being an only child, I have only learned about siblings and their relationships through observation. Best of all, I continue to watch my four children (and two partners) grow in their connections with each other. It warms my heart to see the ways they connect with one another, even with AE and KA living in Seattle, WA and the rest of us living in TX.

For Father's Day, MJ created this Father's Day card for her oldest brother DC, which he shared with me. It is so cute, I am putting it here, as I love how my son is a loving brother, husband, and dad, plus MJ's creativity and thoughtfulness. (This is not to negate my affection and regard for my other children.)

Here you can see that the top picture has DC holding MJ when he was almost 11 years old.

Of course, the bottom picture shows DC as a Daddy, holding Avery and rotund Sampson, our first grand-dog.

Happy Father's Day!

CB and MJ (3 months old)
Feb. 1990

My dad is no longer living, so today I celebrate my dear husband of almost 40 years who continues to be a wonderful father to our four children (and their partners). I am also glad that our oldest child is celebrating his first Father's Day with Avery.

Happy Father's Day!

Pictures from Mother's Day

Avery helped to stand.

Lunch at Z-Tejas Restaurant in Austin, TX
Jan, Avery, CB

While babysitting on Saturday night, CB eats Chinese food while Avery watches.

AA's first Mother's Day!
Son DC, Avery, daughter-in-law AA

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day, Dear Friends!

“I cannot even imagine where I would be today were it not for that handful of friends who have given me a heart full of joy. Let’s face it, friends make life a lot more fun.”

~Charles R. Swindoll (American writer and minister)

“A friend is one of the nicest things you can have, and one of the best things you can be.”

~Douglas Pagels (American inspirational author)

“Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born.”

~Anais Nin (French born American author of novels and short stories)

“Old friends pass away, new friends appear. It is just like the days. An old day passes, a new day arrives. The important thing is to make it meaningful: a meaningful friend – or a meaningful day.”

~Dalai Lama

Groundhog Day!

Groundhog Day

Celebrate this unlikely oracle,
this ball of fat and fur,
whom we so mysteriously endow
with the power to predict spring.
Let's hear it for the improbable heroes who,
frightened at their own shadows,
nonetheless unwittingly work miracles.
Why shouldn't we believe
this peculiar rodent holds power
over sun and seasons in his stubby paw?
Who says that God is all grandeur and glory?

Unnoticed in the earth, worms
are busily, brainlessly, tilling the soil.
Field mice, all unthinking, have scattered
seeds that will take root and grow.
Grape hyacinths, against all reason,
have been holding up green shoots beneath the snow.
How do you think spring arrives?
There is nothing quieter, nothing
more secret, miraculous, mundane.
Do you want to play your part
in bringing it to birth? Nothing simpler.
Find a spot not too far from the ground
and wait.

~ Lynn Ungar ~

(Blessing the Bread)

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And go and see Sherry's more cynical (and realistic?) look at Groundhog Day!