I have to add a disclaimer here, I'm afraid to
edit this at all... When posting the original blog, I added pictures and found
that when I went to the blog, half of my text and pictures had disappeared. I
went back and tried to fix it and found that more text disappeared and some
pictures... I persisted and finally ended up with a very choppy and disjointed blog, I have gone back again and edited, still not all the pictures are up, but I'll try again soon. Please bear with me :)
OK, here it is January the 12th nearly
a month since the last posting... We had the flu, and me with
bronchitis afterwards but we survived and I can’t wait until the vaccine is
done that isn’t egg based… I thought I would update my blog, and realized that
it was time for the blog hop so I decided to combine both my blog and the blog
hop, so please keep this in mind when reading.
My blog is in honor of Mom, Lometta, born in January 1925, she is just a few days shy of 88 years old, and spry and chipper as ever.
The blog hop is for the Memories and Thanks blog
hop, which is to honor someone that has made an impact on your life. I am
excited that today is the blog hop, This hop was started in the memory of
a person that passed away too soon, Marianna , by Lori Anderson at pretty things, use the link
and go by and read about it if you haven't heard the story . I
am excited to see a lot of new blogs, and some of the ones that I really enjoy
visiting. So many new ideas, and things to spring your imagination into full
swing. I so enjoy looking at the artwork that others do. There are so many
talented people out there, so many people that have such a wonderful spirit.
The blogs in this are really touching, there are so many people that are
honored and remembered and loved, respected and cherished.
If you see my Facebook page, you’ll know that before
Christmas, while I was sick for a few days, I was working on a necklace and had
a handful of blue and green beads and thought they were so pretty, I dug
through and found all my blue and green ornaments and voila... here's the tree
I did this year. I thought the colors were good, I love these and it seemed
that they cheered up the place a lot. I painted the kitchen in a very pale
robin's egg blue so it kind of tied in with that since I have a very open floor
plan in the house.
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| Mom with her antlers on Christmas morning 2012 |
This year I didn't get much done for
Christmas. I had not been able to go shopping myself and didn't get to take my
mother shopping at all. Actually, I had gone to the store back somewhere just
after Thanksgiving and never got to go again until Christmas eve… sigh… We made
do with the little that we had. Mom
spent the night on Christmas eve and Christmas night and we enjoyed the visit
so much. I made muffins for breakfast, the cranberry and pecan ones that I always make for Christmas...and we had tamales for dinner and it was
really nice. Mom was excited with presents, even though we didn't do a lot. I suppose she remembers many years of her
being sick or one of us kids being sick (usually me) at the holidays. My Christmas present from my daughter was a beautiful diffuser and the one from my son was sweet, he bought me some bath stuff and he even bought it with his own money!! Really, I was so happy just to have Mom with us that it didn't matter if I had any gifts or not, their presents were just icing to me :) My
son didn't do so badly with the gifts, I had bought his a while back so he was
not unhappy. He had a lot of fun with his grandmother. They did some card
tricks and read a bit, listened to Christmas music and sang some, played some word games and when Mom was tired,
she just napped, and so did my son. The two of them sacked out and the dogs laying all over the place... it was priceless.
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| My son and Mom Christmas this year |
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| Mom with my oldest brother maybe 1944? |
It is so great that Mom is feeling so much
better, and her memory was so much clearer!!!! That in and of itself was
Christmas present for me. She has really had the hardest year. The surgery she
had in June really took a toll on her body and mind. It has been slow, but she
is getting better every day. There were a few times that I thought she wouldn't ever recover, but as usual, she surprised us all. Usually she just jumps right back up and
carries on, but this one was different. This time it made me take a look back and think of
everything she has done for me and been for me. It isn't easy to think about
some of the times…There is a lot of good times but there are the hard times, but then this is how relationships are, right?
They have their ebbs and flows, and when two headstrong women are together,
well… I know that she and I have had issues over the years, but really... I
love her so much and can't think of what life would have been like without her.
You know the youngster with bruised knees and strong will, the bumpy teen years and the very
hard early motherhood years. All the advice she has given me that sometimes I
didn’t want to hear and all the times that she was really the only person that
understood what I was going through. Those times have all shaped our
relationship into this unique bonding of hearts.
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| My sister and Mom at Thanksgiving this year |
Mom has
been through a lot over the years, both physically and mentally. That she was born in 1925 says a lot. The depression and living in the panhandle of Texas was tough on it's own. She could tell you stories of the dustbowl and how hard her mother and father worked. She has
endured at least ten surgeries, all major, and through five babies... losing
one and raising four of us… my older brother passing away was hard for her and
losing close family and friends, I can’t
imagine how hard it has been… and the
hardest of all, the death of my father. In that, she and I shared such a huge
bond. I think that it was unique since I was young and still living at home. His death was not easy for anyone in the
family, but it had to be the hardest on Mom. Through everything that went
on at the time I think that she held up through such circumstances was
admirable.
Mom was
pretty young when my father was killed, I didn't realize how young she was at
the time, but she was. To me she was old and, well, my mom...I guess you don’t
really realize how old your parents are until you get older… I realized just how young she was when she went through that but it was years later when she helped me through one of
the worst times in my life… again... this time when my husband died.
When Greg died
I was just a year younger than Mom was when my father died... and my husband
died leaving me with a six year old so we had so much there that made us bond
even more. I don't know how I could have
made it through that time without her.
She knew how hard it was to go through this, and she knew to be there and not
say anything sometimes, because sometimes you just need someone to be there. I don’t
think anyone else knew that, but she did. I don't know how she made it through
when my father was killed. I really don't. She has to be the strongest woman I
have ever known. I am not saying that it
was all graceful for her. There was the
doctor that gave her way too many sedatives and there is a big part that she
doesn’t even remember, but what she does remember…haunts her even to this day…
The reality of it is that she did make it through and kept going and kept
surviving and helping and living. Sometimes that is all we can ask, and
sometimes it is that living that means the most.
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| Mom with my son and grandson 2004 |
The times that we are allowed to spend with
someone that impacts our lives is sometimes short, sometimes it is long and we
get to savor the changes in the relationship. Mine with my mother has
been, thankfully, long. Now it is that I am the adult and she is the child, not always, but it is more frequent now. This has changed our relationship a lot, but it is a good thing not only for me but especially for my son. Her living and surviving has made an impact on my
children, my son is able to see the cycle of life, from the beginning with my grandson to the ending with my mother. This is teaching him (I hope) to respect life, to cherish it and to love unquestionably. My son and grandson sat at the hospital with me when Mom had surgery this summer, they were so good, they were so sweet and patient, and they hugged Mom so gently and held her hand. I cried when I went to bed every night, thinking, some day that will be me, I pray that they will be that kind to me and teach their children to be as well.
My daughter is older and has a son of her own, and really, that my
mother is still alive has made my daughter stronger I think. She sees that my
mother is a strong woman, that she has been there for all of us and I think we all need that. Just that she has kept
going, something like the Energizer bunny... she just keeps going and going....
makes a difference to us all. It gives hope that we all can be like that,
keeping active and until this summer, she really didn't slow down. Well...
there have been setbacks when she was sick, and days that she didn't want to
move out of her chair... but at 87 she has done pretty well. Until the middle
of June, she was still driving and coming over to visit and going shopping...
though some of her trips were short since she was having problems with her
heart. She was still able to be up and around. She has made me realize
that there is so much you can do in your life, so much you can live and how
quickly it can be taken away from you.
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| home made blueberry muffins |
Mom spent New Year's Eve
with us also. We had blueberry muffins for breakfast (my son has announced that he really doesn't like muffins, he wants a new tradition for the holidays... bacon and eggs...) and watched the Rose Bowl Parade, it
was very nice. It took me back to my childhood when we would be so excited that
the parade was coming on. We ooed and ahhhhd and my son was actually kind
of amazed at the floats and the bands and horses and all the hoopla...
This time spent with her is invaluable for my son... he is 10 now, my
grandson is 8 and the time that they share with her will last them all their
lives. Maybe they can tell their kids something like..."when I was a kid,
your Great-Grandmother and I watched this parade together."... That would
be nice. Really nice.
Then all of a sudden it was back to school and
my son's awards, he got three (I had to add that, I am busting at the seams, I
am so proud of him!) Only a four day week but we were soooo ready for the
weekend! I haven't worked much on jewelry or anything for that matter. I am
still trying to catch up and clean up around the house. There seems to be a
clothes monster that came and dropped off all their laundry in my laundry
room..... I don't know who wore all these clothes. I stayed in pajamas for a
whole week (actually two altogether)... my son as well! Somehow the monster
brought in four beds worth of bedding and a months worth of clothes! So
the whole of the house is a wreck and all I can think of is beading :)
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| Two hearts |
I did start on jewelry for the blog...a necklace and bracelet and
matching pair of earrings and ring (does anyone else do that? I started on the
bracelet and had to work on a necklace because I had an idea, then the
ring... back to the bracelet then to earrings and back to the necklace... then
back to the bracelet!!). I only have the picture of the bracelet from earlier
in the week, working on it. I wanted to set up and take pictures last night,
but... my son had other plans. I love it that he is sociable and has friends.
He is growing up to be such a sweet young man. Anyway, I am seriously going to try to get pictures done later on.
Promise!!!
The theme of the bracelet I made for this blog is "two
hearts" . In our case it is many hearts involved... but to me it was my
mom and me. Two hearts... I started it in Valentine's colors without really thinking about it, it isn't Valentine's, but it really is a Valentine's... you see, well, my birthday is
the day before Valentine's day, and for a long, long time Mom celebrated both
my birthday and Valentine's as one. I know that I didn't appreciate the hearts
and the pink and white back then, I thought I was being gyped out of a day of
my own... but now, I miss that... I miss that she thought that I was her
Valentine. She used to tell me every year about my birth... what she was doing
when her water broke (making Valentine’s cards with my sister) and that I was
her Valentine's Day gift. Well.... It makes me want to cry right now.
Sooo, my mother was the one all these years that
made an impact on me, she made such a difference in my life... and I want to
honor her for all the years that she was there for me... yes, the rough and the
smooth times in our relationship, because without the rain you can't have a
rainbow, without dark you don't appreciate the light. I hope that she is here for
another year or two, but I have been bracing myself for the past ten years or
so, and after the death of my older brother, I really tried to get my head
around the fact that she might not make another year... Cherish each and every
day. Pretend that this is the last day, say I love you time and time again...
when her memory goes and she asks the same question over and over... be patient
and always remember the rainbows.
memories-and-thanks-blog-hop.html
sorry....the link is just above th picture... having so much trouble today...
and how they had walkways on the top of it…. he really liked that trip. Other castles and Abbeys and Priories he was kind of … eh… but this one he really came alive I think. So, to me the castle he is building is inspired by Hermitage…. OK, so right now it isn’t really looking like anything but a bunch of squares, but my son said he will make it look better tomorrow! Gotta love the way he works though, he likes just tinkering with things until he gets it right. 
this is the ring I did today, it doesn’t match anything, but I like it. I am setting up to take pictures tonight, but probably won’t get them done until tomorrow, I like the sunlight anyway… I keep telling myself that every time I decide to go to sleep instead of taking pictures! I have 5 projects that I want to photograph, and one that I gave as a present without getting so much as a picture while I was working on it. 
