December 04 was my Granny’s birthday… she died in 1969 from lung cancer. I lived next door to my Granny for all of my life and thought she was the most wonderful person in the world… she treated everyone so special … like they were need, wanted and loved.

For a creative writing workshop we had to write about something in our childhood that we can still see, feel, taste, and smell in our mind. This was what I wrote about my Granny’s house.

Pots bubbled on the stove and a medley of smells assaulted your nose when you enter the back door. Dirty dishes are stacked in the deep cast iron sink and the floor needs to be swept. A huge butcher knife with a thin blade from the many times it has been sharpened lies on the white painted table. A rat trap baited with cheese is chained to the flour cabinet and a bowl of bread is rising on the small table under the double windows. You’re greeted by a sincere smile and the flash of arms before you’re crushed against the soft warmth of a chest. The reassurance of a steady heart beat and the musky smells of sweat and earth lets you know you’re loved.

At Christmas her house always smelled like pine trees mingled with whatever yummy goody she had in the oven. The front door stayed open even when it was cold because people kept arriving. Her big oak table held the load of the family meal... none of this buffet style... Granddaddy got the bowls first and he would pass it to his right, with Granny getting the bowl last. No one took a bite of food or touched a bowl before Granddaddy said grace. That always puzzled me... Granddaddy didn't go to church and he was a gambling man till the day he died... like the moonshine too. Granny was a church goer and a godly light with her life.... why did Granddaddy say grace??? maybe Granny wanted him to stay on speaking terms with God.

Why does bad things come in threes???

It always seems that way... first my dear friend and neighbor called early evening to tell us that someone broke into their house... yes they clean them out but the really bad part was her mother's jewelery. You can't replace that kind of stuff.
then one of our neighbors died, yes he had cancer and we knew it was coming but are we ever ready for someone to die??? He was a wonderful person and just a few years older than me. Finally, Sheila call this morning and her mother-in-law fell and broke her hip yesterday evening.

I've been mopey all day and I have my open house with "who know how many people coming" tomorrow night. Then I cut my pointing finger on my right hand really bad.... as Ronnie put duck tape on it (it was bleeding so bad nothing else would stick) I realized that I was so blessed. Sound crazy? Yes I have tons to do and this finger will hinder me but I have the things that are important to me like my husband... my health... my friends who will not care if the onions are a little larger than normal in the beans or if the sausage balls aren't perfectly round.
Sometimes you need a little pain to appreciate the joy in your life.

Heart felt sorrow for the Watkin's family
Lezlie, no one can steal your memories, which I know is small condolence right now
Sheila, let me know if I can help

I'm feeling very blessed this afternoon. Going to get grandbabies... maybe those feels will survive. :)

The pictures reflect my hope for the crooks that took my friends belongs.

Stop the Merry-Go-Around and let me off

This picture was posted on Facebook ... I love it. Don't you feel like a craved horse on a Merry-Go-Round sometimes... frozen and going in circles... wouldn't be wonderful to just shed the boundaries of you world and find the magic of your soul. My new years resolution is going to be .... jump off carnival ride and be me at least once a day. To relish the feel of mud beneath my feet, rejoice at the rain on my face and savor the many blessings in my life. Come run with me.

I'm past the age of children on Santa's lap

but now I stressed because I can't get my dog to pose with Santa.... She will do just about anything I ask until I have a camera in my hand. Well y'all are just going to see the BAD pictures and then I'm going to post the good picture someone else took.

What makes you happy?

Money?? Do you ever have enough?? Do you have true friends or money brought friends?? What would happen if one day you didn't have money? To me, money is like thin ice, you never know when it's going to crack and let you fall into the cold waters of financial difficulties.

Social position?? How hard it must be to stay on a pedestal when people are bumping the base trying to knock you off? And how cold your relationships must be when everyone is below you

Your family?? Well you're getting warmer but you know family moves out of your daily life.. kids grow up and leave... husbands, well there is divorce and death... brothers and sisters have families of their own. My point is family should be a blessing but not your happiness.

Friends?? sort of like family, as their family grows with grandchildren and in-laws and this means they are getting older... less time for long talks, long lunches, or a movie outing. Doesn't mean they love you less just that they know you will be there always and understand.

What makes me happy?
Me, myself and I!
I'm happy with who I am, what I have, where I've been and where I'm going.

I need my family and for sure my friends but they're the spices in the soup or the color magenta in your coloring box. I like to think that happiness in your heart makes the people close to you happy too.

If you don't wake up every morning with joyous thoughts ... rain on the roof, the sun peeking over the trees, your rooster crowing, or you husband's husky voice saying "Mornin', did you sleep okay?" well, you need to stop and figure out how to make those thoughts happy ones.

Tonight I put fresh linens on my bed and I was grinning the entire time...my Christmas quilts makes me happy every morning and secret smiling happy each night when I cover up with it. My friends tell me not to use it... it is too pretty to use... I ask them , "Why would I want to put it in a closet when it brings me so much joy on my bed?'

Don't put away the things that make your heart happy... pull them out and use them.

You're worth it!

The front of the quilt is a strip design and the back is Blocks.

I've been bad....

I've been listening to that little voice that says... you don't have time to write... that story needs work... your eyes are getting heavy when I say no way, you'll get up and will not write again today...

Well, I'm blessed with good friends ... first let me say, I'm not a huge, always and forever Elvis fan so this Christmas gift is not for that reason. Don't get me wrong, I listened to his music as a kid and his Christmas album is wonderful.

Hopefully one day soon, I will be able to share why this sign has so much meaning and touched me because I know for a fact she searched for this gift... isn't it wonderful when good friends give you a swift kick to get those creative juices flowing again. Thanks Irene.

Forever Graceland is in document file and not tucked into the writing file where it takes a few more steps to get to it. Merry Christmas to my writing buddies and new chapters will be coming soon.

Digging out of the Christmas blues

I get the blues every Christmas... it's an old ailment... I've had it for as long as I can remember. A little back story here. My mother's family lived in Rhode Island and when she married my Dad June 26, 1946 she never spent Christmas with her family again. Why? Well, Daddy moved her to Florence, Alabama and at first there was no money to travel North at Christmas ... then kids that needed to stay home and have Christmas. My memories of Christmas are wonderful except for Christmas morning... every Christmas morning Mother would call my Grandmother Dugan and cry for the five minutes they talked (remember back then long distance calls were expense) then my Auntie Vi and Aunt Dot would call mother and more crying. Then Mother would start the Christmas feast and cry the entire time.... she always told us it was the onions that made her cry but I knew her heart ached. I lost my mother June of 1978 so Christmas 1977 was my last Christmas with her. She was fifty when she pasted from lung cancer.

Mother's love of Christmas and her family is part of the reason I go slightly overboard for Christmas. But when something or someone influences your actions... you have to take the good and bad with it... every ornament, Santa figure, or nativity I put out brings back Mother and those tears on Christmas morning. I stride to leave happy memories of Christmas spent with me, never sad.

My Christmas motto:

Be kinder to strangers, you don't know the stress they have in their life

Be a better friend because you do know the stress in their lives and you shouldn't neglect them just because you're busy with Christmas

Be more generous with your time, money and talent... it will make your heart joyous

Be grateful for what you have, not sad at what you don't

Be thoughtful, Granny always said... you catch more flies with honey but if you shovel crap... those flies will be all over ya. Thoughtful is the honey and rude is the crap... Her point was flies will come into your life no matter what but don't draw more with your attitude.