sisterhood award and odds and ends about me

Recently (well, it's been longer than I realized) Janine Ripper (Reflections From a Redhead) nominated me for Sisterhood of the World Bloggers Award.  It's been a while since I participated in this kind of blogging camaraderie, and I have been working off and on to complete this for several weeks, as I adjust to a new job and some personal things going on in my life.  Here are my thoughts and answers to Janine's well thought out questions.  Thank you for thinking of me Janine!

Blogging is, for most people, an intensely personal experience.  It is like wearing your underwear on the outside of your clothes.  You feel exposed, worried, and anxious that your underwear will hold up against the scrutiny of the world.  It is also, in my belief, a form of self therapy.  By talking about things you feel strongly about, or have experienced, you go through a cathartic effect, and this helps you to better understand yourself.

So today I will experience catharsis as I reveal a bit about the me in Just My Thoughts.

1. Why did you start blogging? I started blogging because of a compulsive need to share a wonderful experience with my great niece and my sister (her Grammy).
2. What do you love about getting older? I still make mistakes, but I make fewer.  That must mean I have learned a bit from life as I have aged.
3. If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be and why?  Probably England, on a hill overlooking the sea, where I would drink tea and paint or take photographs all day.  (This comes from my obsession with Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, which I first read when I was about 10.

4. Kids or no kids? There is no right or wrong answer.  For me, kids.  Can't imagine my life without them.  Because of them, I have something better than kids.  I have (drumroll) GRANDKIDS.
5. Where do you want to take your blog in the future?  My blog started out with a desire to share a family experience, published on the internet so that family would have access to it.  From there it went to the desire to record (mostly) family experiences, so that my grand kids would have something to remember when they get older and have grand kids of their own. I feel very passionate about leaving something tangible behind for my grands, so that the thread of love I feel for them will be their for their kids and grands to read and experience.  Having written for almost 5 years now, I have begun to feel the need to record more of my photography and haiku poetry for them.  This is the other side of me.  So I see my blog having more posts in the future aimed toward sharing my painting, photography and poetry.  I would still throw in an occasional blog post about a hot topic or current event/news.  My blog is always going to be eclectic.  It is the way I am.
6. Are you a folder or a scruncher?  A scruncher until the Catholic guilt takes over and then I fold as my mum taught me to...and say a couple Hail Marys to atone for the slip up.
7. What are you most grateful for?  Truly grateful?  For waking up in the morning, and starting each day as an opportunity to grow and learn.  I always wake up wondering....what's next?  
8. What are you most looking forward to in 2015?  I have a new job, some new training that may lead in another direction at the same time, and endless possibilities to experience new things.
9. What’s your favourite song? Why not share the you tube clip?  I have no single favorite song, but the one sticking in my mind right now, that I heard recently and downloaded is this one.

10. What is your guilty pleasure? Ice cream...specifically Ben and Jerry's Cherry Garcia.

Now it's taken me so long to reply to Janine she has probably thought I'd forgotten this lovely award. It was hard to choose who to nominate because I know so many awesome bloggers, but I chose a few and hope you will have a look at their blogs.  

So I am nominating:

Jerened's Blog who always leaves me feeling calm and centered

Joy and Mary, two other people who are part of my PBAU family:

Catharsis down to earth advice and life skills from a smart woman

The Adventures of Cilgin Kiz a woman with a true spirit of adventure

and a few blogs that are part of my PBAU family, and new to me:

WhichHatToday

SaltyBug

Mummy2Mum

Here are the ten questions:

1. How do you deal with stress?

2. Why did you write?

3. What do clouds mean to you?

4. Your favorite comfort food?  And why?

5. Do you have a favorite quote? 

6. Name one person who influenced your life and briefly tell why.  (Alive or dead.)

7. What one thing in your life would you change if you could?

8. Your favorite color and why?

9. Where would you live if you had a choice?  Why would you live there?

10. Why smile?

...life is good. ~cath
find me @jonesbabie on Twitter

concoction

Last night I cooked supper for Steve.  I had been trying a recipe I didn't have time for during the holidays, so I decided since I had dessert, I would really shock the s**t out of him and cook a main course.  I am a simple person when it comes to cooking.  I believe in using the fewest pots possible to make a meal.  I measure my success in cooking in the amount of dishes I DON'T dirty...weird I know but since I have never had a dishwasher, there is a method to my madness.

I looked in the fridge and saw some leftover cheese dip I had made.  Aha! I thought to myself, I'll make a concoction and save pots and be thrifty at the same time (i.e., using leftovers and not throwing them away), in effect killing two birds with one stone.

con·coc·tion

kənˈkäkSHən/

noun

1. 1.

   a mixture of various ingredients or elements.

   "a concoction of gables, shingles, stained glass, and towers inspired by English medieval houses"

   synonyms:

   mixture, brew, preparation, potion "a concoction containing gin and vodka" blend, mixture, mix, combination, hybrid "a strange concoction of folk pop and Gregorian chant"

So I took the cheese dip out (it had ground beef in it, always a starting point for any concoction), boiled some noodles (it was either noodles or spaghetti pasta, and I felt egg noodles would be more aesthetically pleasing).  Then I tossed them all together in the same pot I had boiled the noodles in (after draining off the noodle water of course).  Voila, dinner and dessert and I didn't even break a sweat.

As I made the concoction, I thought about how the word came into being in our family.  It is a word my sisters will understand the moment they see this post.  What does this word mean to me?

It is how I learned to cook.  When I was about 13 or 14, my mother was on a journey of self discovery.  She was a good cook, but never wanted anyone helping her in the kitchen, and so I knew nothing about cooking.  Somehow, when mom and dad divorced and mother went to work, I chose the task of cooking for my sisters and I.  Don't ask me why, because it was long before I knew about Julia Child.  In fact, I didn't even know how to boil water.  That was the first thing I learned to do, and it was about that time I started drinking tea.  I had tried coffee with milk and sugar but mom had told me that if I was going to drink coffee, I had to drink it black.  So that stopped my coffee drinking cold, and I fell in love with tea.  Milk and sugar of course, which for some reason didn't offend mom's sensibilities.  It's a habit I still have.  

After I learned to boil water, I began to think of ways to cook something we could actually eat.  I decided to started with ground beef.  That was almost always the base for my concoctions.  After that I tossed in whatever we had in the pantry.  But the magic began the first time I spotted the spice rack and decided to "spice" it up.  I knew spaghetti had spices, and so did a lot of other recipes.  I wasn't working with a recipe, so I decided to just let my imagination guide me.

My sisters will say straight up that my imagination caused epic failures much of the time. There were times what I cooked was delicious, or at least palatable.  Then there were the times the girls thought I was trying to poison them. 

I can hear them laughing as they read this.  What started out as an experiment in learning for me, brought us all closer.  Along the way, we learned to rely on ourselves, and that we could do anything we set our minds to.  An attitude that persists to this day in all three of us.

What a memory.  What marvelous times we had, and we didn't even realize it at the time.

See you soon Vix and Dooj...and I'll make you a concoction while I am there.  I've improved just a bit over the years. xo  

...life is so very good. ~cath 
find me @jonesbabie on Twitter

ormigami yoga yoda

I had to travel to Birmingham twice this week, after work.  Not an easy thing to do when you are tired at the end of a work day.  One trip was to show Maddie's Girl Scout troop a little bit about yoga.  What I know about yoga could fit on the head of a pin.  But I figured 8 and 9 yr old girls couldn't be too tough to stand in front of for 20 minutes.  And I could bluff my way through anything with kids.  I have with the grands many  times, and managed to keep a straight face.

This time my karma held and I was right.  Of course, to earn the fitness badge the Brownies were working on took more than just yoga.  They had done 20 minutes of Zumba before they got to me.  There was a bit of a problem right away though.

Yoga requires a focused mind, deep breathing techniques and the ability to hold a pose.  You can't take 10 little girls and wind them up in a Zumba class and expect they will be able to lay on a mat and do yoga poses after jumping around like grasshoppers.

tree pose

We actually fared well together though.  I told them a little about the history of yoga, then we sat and did some deep breathing.  Then we went through some poses.  They loved the poses.  My mistake was in giving them handouts.  The more daring of the bunch wanted to try something called the birthday candle.  (You raise your back and legs off the mat, and balance your body on
your shoulders and head.  I took one look and told them no way could I do that pose.  Then I showed them a Sun Salutation, and made them do that one twice.  After that I took them through Warrior I and Warrior II, and most of them snickered, thinking I was an old lady and was doing the easy stuff.  Then I put them in a Reverse Warrior pose, and heard the groans I was waiting for.  I smiled secretly to myself then put them through some more poses.  At the end of 20 minutes, they were done.  Like a well cooked roast beef.

And so was I.  I'd been sick the week before and hadn't practiced yoga in days, and could feel it in the quivering muscles in my legs and back.  Right before I collapsed in an ignominious heap on the floor in front of them, I took them through the meditation/relaxation.

Namaste

Try getting 10 little girls to keep their eyes closed and relax, when they are full of energy from all the exercise they have done.  It just isn't possible.  I had them all together for about 3 seconds.  Then eyes started popping open, and heads twisting.  They were afraid they were missing something, so they kept peeking.  The only thing they were missing was me laughing.  No one noticed that.

Namaste.

...life is good. ~cath 

find me @jonesbabie on Twitter

#blogcrawl prompt: penny arcades

I join this #blogcrawl Twitter party tonight by invitation, thinking I don't have much to contribute but I can sip my wine and watch...then I get sucked in...I am always drawn into chat...I think it shows us at our best (and sometimes worst) and we learn a lot about humanity at the same time we chat with each other.

So then the prompt comes...and I panic...and make an excuse to exit quickly so I can think about what I am going to post.  AND I KNOW THAT I DON'T HAVE A THOUGHT IN MY HEAD WORTH PUTTING IN A POST.

So I will tell you my memories and thoughts about penny arcades...that is about the best I can do...

There aren't any true penny arcades left...not that cost a penny anyway...we've taken the kids to something similar in Panama City Beach, Florida when they were small.  There was this certain arcade that caused the kids to develop a broken wrist.  Stevie Wonder said it was a disease that only a dime would cure.  That's right, skeeball cost a dime...BUT they won lots of tickets and got a ton of cheap toys that broke almost immediately...but all three kids came away feeling like winners.

The other memory of penny arcades was our recent trip to California with the whole family.  We actually ran across a penny arcade on Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco with antique penny machines, along with all sorts of arcade machines of all ages.  The grandkids got to play the kind of games that were available from the turn of the century all the way up to pinball machines from the days of my childhood before the advent of video games.

I was afraid they would be bored.  I mean, those games didn't do nearly as much as the video games of today.  No 3D or special sound effects or graphics...just little pieces moving around and getting knocked or shot down.

But...they LOVED it.  And I loved watching their eyes light up as they ran from machine to machine and I got to explain what those games were about...the history.

That was a mellow, memory evoking day...and one I won't ever forget, and they won't either.

Penny arcades...the stuff of wonder and dreams...

...life is good. ~cath
find me @jonesbabie on Twitter

voyage

...life is good. ~cath
find me @jonesbabie on Twitter

it's only a paper moon, dunc

I decided it was time to do something quality with the twins this weekend.  Jack was sick next door with strep throat, so they were going to be stuck with TV and video games on the iPad and iPhone.  I decided to be a better Grammy and offer something different.

We were going to make a paper zoo.  Yes, it was an app I found for the iPad, but perfect for us to use together, in a burst of creative genius.

The best laid plans of mice and men...and Grammies.

It wasn't too long into cutting out our first animals in the paper zoo that I realized two things.
1. It wasn't as easy as it said the easy level was going to be.
2. Dunc was totally not into it.

I cajoled as I struggled to cut out the pieces of the seal (there were 5 pieces), and he followed directions and cut them out, but became more and more withdrawn and appeared irritated, heaving several loud sighs along the way.

I played ignorant of his attempts to let me know how bored he was for two reasons.
1. I was determined to do something quality with the twins, even though Dunc had told me earlier that Maddie and I could make the seals and he would just watch TV.  (TV? NO WAY!)
2. I have been artistic all my life and couldn't believe any grandchild of mine would be so uninterested in creating something from a piece of paper.

Maddie was happily cutting away, and trying to engage Dunc too.  He got more and more morose as he realized that he couldn't squirm out of this, until he finally threw his paper and scissors down, and put his head in his hands in utter despair.

I realized then I could do one of two things.
1. Force him to participate, even if it killed him (and I think he was thinking it might).
2. Give up on my expectations and let him be who he was.

I chose the second, because I will never be a Grammy who forces fun on anyone.  This obviously wasn't fun to anyone but me and Mad anyway, so we forged happily on struggling to cut and paste together a zoo.

We finally got the seals finished, and even completed Dunc's for him.  Maddie's seal had blue eyes, she thinks because it was a special seal, even though I told her it was because I was running out of ink on the printer.

Maddie asked if we could do another one.  I had fingers full of glue, and was tired from sitting in a child's chair that was one foot off the floor.  So I candidly told her that there was no way I was doing another animal today, but we could plan what to do the next time she came back.

She chose the giraffe.  Which is way up the food chain.  I know this because it has about 35 pieces to cut and glue.

I plan to drink a big glass of wine before we take on the giraffe.  Or I might decide to go watch TV with Duncan.

...life is very good. ~cath
find me @jonesbabie on Twitter

girls' moment

 {this moment} - A weekly ritual.  A photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week.  A moment in time I want to capture, to savor and remember.

“This Moment” is a ritual I found on Pamanner's Blog, via Life inspired by the Wee Man adopted from SouleMama.  Check out their blogs, and if you are moved too, please leave a link to your Moment in the comment box below.

life is good...
~cath
Twitter @jonesbabie

friday soccer moments

"the joie de vivre of children"


 {this moment} - A Friday ritual.  A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week.  A moment in time I want to capture, to savor and remember.
“This Moment” is a ritual I found on Pamanner's Blog, via Life inspired by the Wee Man adopted from SouleMama.  Check out their blogs, and if you are moved too, please leave a link to your Moment in the comment box below.

life is good...
~cath
Twitter @jonesbabie

my social disease

First posted on 2/10/2011, this social disease has grown to monstrous levels I fear.  I have added Pinterest to share and reshare all those to-die-for ideas out there, Instagram to share all those to-die-for photos I take, Hipstamatic (more photo sharing), Stumble Upon so I can discover more things to share, and Google+ to share the stuff I share on other social media.  There is Twitterfeed to share the blogs I love, and I have just begun to delve into Empire Avenue.  I am not sure what the heck that one is about.  But I have accumulated hundreds of thousands of "eaves" because people I don't know buy shares of whatever it is I am selling.  This is beginning to look like a twisted convoluted jungle.  Is there an end in sight?  I am not sure.  Some days I feel overwhelmed and wonder what I would be doing if I wasn't using all this social media.  Then I see something new, and it sparks the creativity in me, and off I go in another direction.  So the adventure continues... :D

2/10/2011
I am amazed at social networking.  At how everything links together, how we can communicate every thought (Twitter), connect with friends and family, their friends and family, and the friends and family of the friends and family of ours and theirs (Facebook).  I can chat online in Facebook, and on MSN Messenger or Yahoo Messenger with different people.  At the same time.  I am a multitasker you say?  Well yes.  But I was a multitasker before all this, the person in my family who could read a book, watch television, and talk on the phone at the same time.

Confused?  Well so am I, with how these programs all overlap and tie in to each other.  I have 2 laptop computers (a mini for travelling and its predecessor that was just a bit too heavy to lug thousands of miles while I was working in other places), a desktop computer, and an iPhone.  Between these I have downloaded and used:

1. Twitter- computer
2. Hootsuite- computer (for Twitter)
3. Hootsuite- iPhone
4. Tweetdeck- computer
5. Tweetdeck- iPhone
6. Twittelator- iPhone
7. Facebook- iPhone
8. Facebook- computer
9. IM Pro- iPhone (ties Twitter, Facebook, and MSN Messenger together in one app)
10. MSN Messenger- chat
11. Yahoo Messenger- chat
12. Paltalk- yakkity yakkity yak...

Then there is Blogger for the two blogs I write, Flickr for the photos I take, Google Reader for reading all the blogs I follow, Networked Blogs for linking most of those blogs together.  And the list goes on.

If I had to draw it, it would look something like this:

Pretty shocking isn't it?  And I am sure I have forgotten a couple {dozen} programs I use occasionally.  I find that what started out as one small program has blossomed and runs the risk of becoming a runaway train with no brakes.

So I try to limit myself somewhat.  OK, I'm lying.  I limit my time with Steve...I mean I give him some time every day.  That is why it takes me a bit of time to catch up on my day off, to overdose on the computer, which is usually on Fridays.  And of course that means that after a hard day on the computer, being social with everyone who I can get to interact with me, I need my Friday night #wineparty on Twitter. 

I may sound whiny, but I am not whining.  I find some fascinating people on here (with the occasional horse's ass appearing and getting squashed with a click of my mouse).  But for the most part, my online experiences have been so positive that I get the warm fuzzies thinking about it.  And look forward to tomorrow.

Friday.  My day to be social.  To let my disease run amok.  Will this social disease ever run its course?  Well it hasn't in the hmmm, almost 10 years since I discovered my first interactive chat and file sharing program (Direct Connect, or DC++ as we called it).  And I still keep in touch with some of those friends I made years ago.  Wonderful people.

So I would say I am happily terminal.  But I am also colonized with the germs of this social disease.  So watch out, if you come in contact with me.  You may become contaminated with the same disease.  But no worries, you'll have lots of company.  On Twitter, Facebook, MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, Blogger, Flickr, and blah blah blah....

See you in cyberspace.  Live long and prosper.

Click.

the grown up day

I was born in the Chinese year of the dragon.  Additionally, this year the element sign is water, which is also my element.  Because this is my year, special things have been happening to me, and around me.  This is for my grands.   It's a fractured tale, but it's my tale and I'm sticking to it.

Once upon a time there was a Gramps and a Grammy.  They loved their grandkids and loved to have them visit, but once in a while Grammy and Gramps liked to have a grown up day by themselves.  This was so they could spend some special time together and have some grown up fun.

the beautiful day

One weekend the day was so beautiful that they decided to get out and have some fun.  They talked about lots they could do, and finally decided to go to the state line and buy some lottery tickets.  Because this was Grammy's year, the year of the dragon, and she was going to win the lottery and build everyone in the family their own castle.

So Gramps spent the day before the trip washing his new truck, and polishing it, and cleaning all the mats so not even a blade of grass or speck of dirt could be found in it.  It was so shiny it looked like a new red apple sitting in the front yard.  

On Saturday morning Gramps put the bum's rush on Grammy to get her ready and out the door, even though she only took thirty minutes to get ready, and even though it had taken that shiny red truck eight hours to get ready.

They left the house and drove to the big city, stopping to get Grammy some of her special Starbucks tea.  Gramps got himself a big cup of coffee too.  They drove on down the road to buy the [lottery] ticket that would give them a pie-in-the-sky life.

Gramps' pants

A little way down the road, Gramps tried to set his coffee in the cup holder, and missed, even though it was a big cup holder.  The coffee bounced on his lap, then rolled down his leg, leaving a trail of hot coffee all the way down his left pants leg.  Grammy tried not to laugh, she really did, but she just couldn't behave like a Grammy should, and she laughed loudly as Gramps said some really ugly words.  (Gramps got coffee on his left sock too.)

They rode a little farther, and got to the place where they sell those special prize winning tickets that have Grammy's name on them.  Just as they exited the highway and turned into the parking lot, Grammy's tea fell off the top of the center console where she had accidently left it, and it rolled down Gramps' right leg, leaving a trail of tea stains.  Grammy made sure not to laugh this time, because she was afraid Gramps might get really mad at her for not having her tea in the cup holder.  By the time the truck stopped, there was a big puddle of tea in Gramps' freshly cleaned floor mat.

the real food place

Gramps got the special ticket that was going to make Grammy a rich woman, and found out that the store didn't have any paper towels in it.  Not one single roll.  So Gramps had to use his special window cleaning cloths to mop up the tea.

After he got finished, they rode to a nearby store to buy Gramps some new pants.  Then they drove back to the big city, and went to a nice restaurant and had some really good food.  They enjoyed the real food because they had been eating cardboard dieting for weeks.  After they finished their real food, Gramps took Grammy to the movie.  It was a very exciting movie (the kind men always like with lots of action).

Grammy and Gramps had so much fun being grown ups that day.  And Gramps learned an important lesson.

Never put the bum's rush on Grammy when she is getting ready to go out, or hot tea and coffee will always fall on your side of the seat.  Every time.  Because this is the year of the dragon, and Grammy's turn to laugh.

She didn't laugh too much though, because Gramps got her a second cup of her special hot tea on the way home.  Starbucks Tazo Chai latte.  And it never left her hand.

The End

~cath xo
Twitter @jonesbabie