05.10.10

Gifts of the heart.

Posted in General at 3:01 pm by Janet

May is gifting season at our house.  We have three birthdays, an anniversary, and Mother’s Day.  Three of those days involve me, and since we are all busy, and poor I don’t expect lots of money or time spent on gifts for me. 

Another problem is one of those days sometimes falls on Mother’s Day, Marks birthday, and this year even though his birthday is tomorrow we celebrated his birthday with a combined birthday/Mother’s Day dinner.  It felt like it was all about me yesterday, and that is sad.  Mark was born on Mother’s Day thirty years ago.  I often tell people that Mark was the best Mother’s Day gift I have ever received.  Those of you who have been in the last month of pregnancy understand exactly what I’m talking about.  He didn’t receive any gifts yesterday probably due to the fact that he is fairly wealthy for a young single adult and people know that he can buy whatever he wants, nobody knows what he wants and needs because he doesn’t broadcast that and people were more concerned about what to get mom for Mother’s Day (I don’t need anything people, I just want you all to be happy and secure in life, so get there!).

To make things easier for my wonderful children and grandchildren I started a new tradition last year.  I asked everyone to learn a poem for my birthday and then recite it to me at a family gathering.  I had read about this tradition somewhere and really liked the idea.  My birthday is coming up again and I have been hearing hints that the preparations are going along nicely.  Memorizing is a double gift, I get to enjoy it and the person who memorizes something is gifted as well.  I have entertained myself before by recalling things I had memorized when I was growing up (it seems like a dying art to me).

Gifts of the heart are the things we do for those we love.  They don’t have to be expensive.  Gifts of the heart involve two hearts, that of the receiver and that of the giver.

05.06.10

We’re back, and we didn’t bring the warm sunny weather with us.

Posted in General at 9:18 am by Janet

We flew back from our cruise on Monday morning.  Since we’d been gone for 10 days we were glad to get back.  We sort of expected the weather here would have gotten warmer while we were away, but no, ’twas not the case.  In fact when we flew in it was so windy that the captain had everyone in their seats early.  It was a rough ride, though not the worst I have ever been on. 

Everyone was glad to see us, and we were happy to see everyone.  The good thing about  a vacation is you forgot about the real world for a few days.  When you get back you are all refreshed and ready to get back to work.  We had a great time, but that is not real life and I’m sure it would get tiring after a while to have people waiting on you hand and foot all day long.  Maybe not.  We have thought about taking a longer cruise, we did take a 15 day cruise a few years ago that we quite enjoyed.  I am talking about maybe 3 weeks. 

My house needs much attention.  Tuesday and Wednesday were both busy.  I have my visiting teaching done for the month and have my cub scouts prepared with a gift for their moms and a skit for the next Pack meeting.  Today I have errands to run and then I will clean this afternoon.  We would like to get a bike ride in this afternoon as well.  Dale has lost a pound already, this was the cruise gain (he only gained 3 pounds). 

I will sign off for now.  Since Dale kept a journal of our travels I will let him regale you with the travelogue.