Another day in the life

I was up with the crack of the wind outside on Saturday.  Wowza!  Sounded like a tree or two might have fallen across the street.  I was really surprised to see none had.  A few branches, but nothing real serious that I could see.  Trying to beat the dog down the stairs was fun.  She was in a huuuuurrrrr-ry!  I just prayed she'd wait till she was outside to do her thing.  And she did.  Good dog.

While she was outside, I got the dishwasher emptied, straightened a few things in the kitchen and started my daily do's. 

 

One thing on my list every day is a toy sort.  Why do I sort?  Simple.  Something very overlooked by a huge percentage of parents out there.  I learned when my oldest were little that kids play with things that are all there.  If they don't get sorted, all there isn't happening.  And kids get lost in sorting.  It takes a while to teach that fine art.  And you don't teach with your mouth.  You don't teach with a trash bag.  You don't teach by taking things away or threatening.  You teach by doing.  Get down ON the floor and teach them that everything has a place.  Make it a game if they're there.  And they should be once they're old enough.  Shoot.  I've even got Emmi putting her blocks all in one bin when we pick up together.  It's very possible.  And it takes stress off you allowing for more snuggles and huggles times.

 

Besides.  Disrespecting toys is wrong.  Toys cost money.  You may not have purchased them, but someone did.  It really gets my knickers in a twist when I see things we have often sacrificed to get someone tossed about, broken, trashed or put out in a garage sale in a state of disrepair. 

 

Toys are tools for kids too.  Toys should teach.  I would no sooner toss out a set of lincoln logs than I would Tales of Two Cities.  Teach.  In all you do, teach.

 

~~~~~

 

A teacher affects eternity;

he can never tell where his influence stops. 

~~Henry Brooks Adams

 

~~~~~

I am thinking I will make an attempt to go back to MySpace for BFF blogs but planning to keep real blog right here.  And I will copy/paste the BFF blogs to redgage.  If you are on there, I'm sagekidsmom on there.  Friend me. 

 

My plans are to also starting a family blog here. That will be if anyone cares.  So far, no one has gotten back to me except my brother. Okay.  Maybe I don't need to.  If the want to isn't there now it would be a total waste of time.  I don't have that much time free that I can waste it on doing something no one really cares about.  We'll see.  If March 1st comes and no one has sent me anything, I'm done.  It was good when we used to do the newsletter on aol hometown.  But aol cut that out and it went by the way side.  I've tried a few avenues already but it didn't work.  Oh well.  It was something very important to me, but evidently not to others.  If family connections are lost, it can't be said I didn't try.  But I'm not beatin' a dead horse anymore.

 

~~~~~

 

And so ... no.  Crockpot tapioca is NOT a good idea.  At least not for me.  It looked like it would be fine but it is weepy and it burned a little around the edge which sent the flavor throughout the pot.  But I'll eat it.  What can I say.  Tapioca is one of my favorite things and I can't see wasting all those ingredients.  sigh  I'd made my big pot.  My little one is out at camp.

 

~~~~~

 

An idea not coupled with action

will never get any bigger

than the brain cell it occupied. 

~~Arnold H. Glasgow

 

~~~~~

 

Today's lunch was a nice tossed salad.  I'm finding it pretty easy to stay on this not-a-diet diet.  I'm just paying attention to what I'm eating now.  And it's helping me be sane with choices.  And if I blow it?  Oh well.  Tomorrow is another day.  Actually it only happened once and it was a day filled with having to eat out.  But today, a salad at home...

 

romaine lettuce mix

carrots, chopped

celery, chopped

cucumber, skinned and chopped

green pepper, sliced and cut small

green onion, sliced

tomato wedges

herb roasted turkey, cut into squares

cojack cheese cubes

 

And for supper, I made a pasta salad.

 

tri-color rotini

green onion, sliced thin

green pepper, chopped into little squares

tomatoes, quartered and sliced

celery, chopped small

carrots, sliced small

cucumber, skinned, quartered and sliced

ham slices, cut up

salami slices, cut up

provolone cheese squares

cojack cheese squares

Italian dressing to make it taste awesome

 

~~~~~

 

What fine examples of great love our children have.  Our parents and our grandparents were wonderful examples of what love really is.  I don't know how long our grandparents were married.  Cliff and I both lost grandparents when they were young.  But the spouse that lived was true to the love and memory of their husband or wife.  Two did remarry, but even still the love of their first wife remained.  It didn't lessen the love they had for their second wife.  It was expected respect for that first, great love.

 

Our own parents were both married sixty years or more before our fathers passed away.  And Papa and I have been married since 1972.  Love.  Great, lasting love.

 

PICTURES OF GRANDPARENTS

PICTURES OF PARENTS

PICTURE OF US

 

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY, EVERYONE. 

MAY YOUR LIFE BE FILLED WITH LOVE.

 

~~~~~

 

It's struck me several times already this winter, the connections I had with my gramma.  And I tend to get even more sentimental about her and miss her more in the winter time.  She passed away during what I now know was her favorite time of year.  She wasn't one to keep a regular journal, but when my mom passed away and I was going through her things, I came upon a little notebook that she kept.  In it, she never wrote about any other time of year but she did keep a diary of the first snowfall of each year.  It was important to her.  And to her, it was magical.

 

It must be where I get my love for that white stuff some see as burdensome and ugly.  I will say about this time of year, it does get that way.  Our driveway is a hill and slip sliddin' up and down it is a real challenge.  But who can forget the beauty?

 

PICTURE OF THE SNOW

 

~~~~~

 

I'm signing off.  I'm tired.  I've been working on getting things going on redgage.com (I'm sagekidsmom if you're part of it. If not...why not?  You get paid for what you post.  Slow and steady I'm over a quarter already.)  I'm also working on a family website on blogspot.  Family...if you didn't get an author invitation, please let me know.  You must be invited to author and I'm setting it up for now that only authors can read it.  If we have other family and friends to add as readers later, I'll change it to invited persons instead.  Anyhow.  This is all keeping me pretty busy and wearing me out.  Ready to hit the hay...

 

Hugs, all...

~~Mama Sage

 

Pictures will be added once this crazy thing lets me.  It's saying the page to add pictures can't be found.  Oh sure.  Whatever!  lol