Arrrgh!!!

Our weathermen are saying that it will be an extra blanket night. This is one of my favorite times of the year. I don't care for heat, and I really don't care for frostbitten toes and nose. I love cool weather, both during the day and at night. This is great sleeping weather!

As a matter of fact....I think it's bed time!

I hope you all sleep well, and find yourself refreshed and comfortable when tomorrow arrives!

From ghoulies and ghosties and long-leggedy beasties and things that go bump in the night...Dear Lord preserve us!

This is a difficult entry to write, but I'm in trouble with my Mother, again. This happens with a fair degree of regularity. Mother has a very comfortable life with us, but I'm confident that she would rather live with any of my siblings. On the surface, this seems like the ideal situation. She has the front half of our house, and all the storage she wants in the basement. She has total access to the kitchen and the laundry and we've created container gardens for her on the sidewalk so that she can keep her hand in at gardening, now that she can no longer get into the regular gardens.

I take my mother to all her hair and doctor appointments, and to exercise three mornings a week. We stop at the bank, grocery shop and occasionally hit specialty stores together. I ask for her input on meals, and have forced myself not to nag her about what she eats (butter, chocolate, crackers, ice cream etc.) or doesn't eat (protein, veggies). I'm the person who took her to all her chemo appointments when she had colon cancer. I'm the one who hosts the Empty Nester Sewing circle once a month so that she can be among her friends from church. I'm also the one who takes her to the Red Hat Lady functions.

Unfortunately, I'm also the impatient one. When I call you to dinner, I am ready to have you sit at the table. Meals don't mean as much to Mother these days, so once we get her to the kitchen, and deal with a resting place for her cane, we still have to surmount the obstacle of getting her seated and served. Generally, she sees it as a social hour. By that time of day I frequently don't have what it takes to stand and chat, knowing that it will delay the time when I can sit and put my feet up for the evening.

My mother is very attuned to criticism and sees it where it doesn't exist. Recently she has taken to telling people that she is very fortunate that we have been willing to "put up with her." I'm sure that my impatience has leaked out....and I need to find a way to accept that there is nothing as important right now as peace in my household, and my mother's comfort.

My mother needs the security of knowing that she is wanted, and welcome. Don't we all feel that way? We made the choice to have her live with us. We never said...."Come live with us for the next ten years." She has actually been with us for nineteen years. I certainly hope, should I get to be ninety-one, that someone will care for me with compassion, and have more patience than I seem to be able to corral.

So, as we near Mother's Day, I'm contemplating ways to make Mother happy. The first entry on my checklist is.....MORE PATIENCE!

Dear Husband mowed for the first time this year on May 6th!

We don't generally push the mowing season. One of our neighbors was out mowing two weeks ago, but he has a pocket yard that is treated by one of the lawn companies. Our lawn finally needed attention today.

We had a beautiful sunny morning, but clouds have been moving in, and we'll have rain later tonight, tomorrow and tomorrow night. This will probably kill off our tulips and daffodils, but it will make way for the lilacs, peonies and iris, so it's not all bad.

Dear Husband takes the boat to Lake Michigan on May 16th and quilting season arrives the same day! *G*

I had intended to remove the screens tomorrow, clean the inside windows, wipe up all the spider webs, clean the screens and re-insert them. It sounds worse than it is. We don't have screens on every window, and they are taken out from the inside. It's a rite of Spring, part of spring cleaning that really needs to be done after a long winter.

I could get this job done despite the heavy rain coming through, but there have been a few changes to the game plan. Elegante Mother was not feeling well on Thursday, so she canceled her standing hair appointment. I made another appointment for her this Saturday morning at 8:30.

Then, I'm sad to say, a friend from the Empty Nesters group at Elegante Mother's church has passed away. He was a fascinating man. HE had just recently been moved to a nursing home. His 88th birthday was about two weeks ago, so the Empty Nesters all gathered to celebrate with him. Walt had been in the Army Air Corps stationed in England during World War II. He became very fond of English tea, not just the drink, but the afternoon meal. The EN group arranged for small sandwiches, sausage rolls, fruit, punch, tea, and birthday cake. Walt couldn't get enough to eat! I suspect the food at the nursing home was radically different from what he was used to eating.

The ladies of the Empty Nesters got together and designed a wall hanging which one of them created using embroidery machines. It commemorated Walt's life, with squares about England, and Wisconsin. We all signed the back of the wall hanging.

So, it was with great sadness that I learned he had passed away early this week. There will be a service Saturday afternoon, followed by a reception. We've offered to provide Caesar salad, brownies and lemon bars for the reception, and I'll serve while EM sits and talks with friends.

Shortly after the reception, we have to hurry and get a light dinner. One of my talented great-nephews is performing in "Les Miserables" and we have promised to be in the audience. EM is going to be exhausted! This is a lot more than she is used to doing.in one day.

So.....clean windows have been set back a day or two in favor of much more important activities. I can't say I really mind.

We have several plants that are harbingers of spring. They bloom when all the others are still thinking about creating flowers, and are opening their leaves to the sun.

My father had a star magnolia outside the windows of his last office, what he called "the shop." The magnolia was planted on a rather steep hillside in Stone County, Missouri. You can imagine how difficult it was to water that shrub adequately. First there was run-off because it hadn't been set into the hillside properly,and second, the ground absorbed the water and it drained off immediately. I didn't understand these things at the time, and I thought this little plant was destined to be just three feet tall.

More than twenty years later, I bought a star magnolia, a tip of the hat to my Dad's choice of shrubs. It's planted just outside the window to MY office. This "shrub" has grown to be 18-20 feet tall and the blooms were awesome this year! As you can see from the picture, the entire plant was densely covered with blooms.

The CPA's assistant came to visit a couple of weeks ago when the magnolia was at its peak. I had the windows open, and a gentle breeze was coming in past the magnolia. The scent was amazing! Our heads swiveled in unison to sniff the air! *G*

Unfortunately, the blooms on our star magnolia last barely a week, less if the temperatures are extreme. So they have given way to the daffodils and tulips and other flowering shrubs.

We have one pod of very early tulips that I believe are the "Darwin" variety. Usually tulips die a quick death in the clay of my gardens, but these have lasted for easily fifteen years. For some reason, the chipmunks who live in that garden leave them alone. They seem to have the same protective scent or taste that daffodils have, and pests leave them alone.

I love the bright color. It's a shock to the senses so early in spring!