Two Visits

This week I very much enjoyed a visit at my sister Grace's home, with her visiting son Mike, his wife Pat, and Grace's daughter Tina. Mike and Pat live in Florida and it had been two years since I had seen them. Tina lives in the same apartment complex that Grace moved into recently, which is great for them both.

Grace has downsized a lot in order to move from her house with the lovely big yard she created to a 600 sq. foot apartment. She does have a ground-floor unit with a small patio. Her unit is located at the end of the section of patio units and has a lovely private courtyard with lawn feel to it. I am so glad she has some outdoor space. She is surrounding her patio with planters and soon will have her own flower garden. Wherever she lives, Grace has the talent to make it her own distinctive place.


Grace, Mike, and Tina. I took a photo of Mike and Pat sitting on the sofa, but it did not turn out very well. I can't see the results on my camera screen very well--I thought I had  good one, but I'm pretty sure they would not thank me if I posted it!



The second visit was our annual visit to the cemetery to decorate family graves for Memorial Day. We have been doing this for many years. Some years there has been quite a large family group that gathered for this. Little kids have grown up, my mother and my husband are now among those whose graves we put flowers on, and no out of town family were here to join us this year. So my daughter Anne Marie, dear son-in-law Chad, my sister Grace, and I did the honors. Our cemetery is well kept and lovely, The sun was shining. It was a time, not of sorrow, but of memory.



Grace, at our parents' grave.

I am standing by Jerry's grave.

Anne Marie fussed at me about taking her picture. So, though she is a lovely woman, I'm not including the photo I snapped from a distance of her and Chad. (I don't promise to keep leaving you out though, Anne Marie!)

Later in the day we had a lovely rain. Wyoming always needs water to give us a green spring!

Springtime in Wyoming!

It is springtime in Wyoming. Yes, really. A few days ago it was in the 70s with bright sunshine, tulips and daffodils blooming in the yard, and green grass. The lilac buds were developing at an amazing pace, and I was eager for the bushes under my kitchen window to burst into full, glorious bloom.

This is what the world looked like out my back door this morning.

We have now had several days of snow. It warms up a bit in the daytime and melts some off. More falls.

I well remember the huge blizzard of May Day 1967 when the whole town was shut down. All the streets were blocked. First we lost power, then, when the back-up batteries were drained, the phones were dead, and, finally, no more water.

Two days later spring was back.

Not every year is like this, of course.

We would certainly rather be getting our water in the form of rain, but, when one lives in a semi-arid region, water in any form is good for the land.

DNA

A few weeks ago I sent in the saliva sample to Ancestry.com's DNA project.

The results are now in. Not much in the way of surprises. Yes, that Irish/Scots/Great Britain evidence in the family tree also includes those Vikings. That Scandinavian DNA was expected because, among other things like height and coloring, my father's paternal line is named McLaughlin. "Loughlin" is a Scandinavian name found in various forms in Ireland. The "Mc" prefix means "son of." The name McLaughlin, according to Internet sources, means "Son of a Norseman." The Norsemen not only raided along Ireland's coasts, they built trading posts that became towns and cities and they mixed with the local population.

The biggest surprise was a 1% European Jewish portion. Ancestry puts a qualifier on that. Such a small percentage cannot be a certainty. If it truly is Jewish DNA it would have come from a lot of generations back.

As a person who grew up on the Bible--and all those great stories are Jewish stories--I like the idea that a little bit of me came from Abraham. God promised him descendants like the stars of the sky. I like thinking I am one of those stars! Such a small portion of my DNA is not enough to have much influence on my makeup. But the reality is that if even one ancestor is pulled from the line of descent I no longer exist, no matter how far back in the chain that ancestor lived.

It is a little bit overwhelming to think about all those unknown people who went into the making of each of us!

In a Mood

For a few weeks now I have been in a mood.

Not really a bad mood.

Not really a good mood.

Not really a depressed mood.

I don't really know how to describe it. Perhaps it's an introvert's utter avoidance and quiet time mood.

Usually a news junkie, I have barely checked the headlines. Some days I don't turn on the TV at all.

When I watch TV, it is mostly to catch up on things I set the DVR to record, and lately it has mostly been house shows. My favorites are Tiny House shows that have fascinated me, but I also watch house hunting shows, and I really enjoy the remodel and/or fix up and flip house shows. I have discovered that I like the people looking for tiny houses much better than those hunting for their huge dream houses. The big house people are so demanding--Oooh that beautiful Mexican tile must go, because only hardwood is acceptable; ugh! that (insert anything here) is so dated I could not possibly live with it; unless it is an open floor plan it is simply awful; if it is an open floor plan it is simply awful; only a huge, spa-like master bathroom is acceptable; a kitchen without granite countertops is simply primitive and must be gutted; only white cabinets are acceptable; only dark cabinets are acceptable; stainless steel appliances are the only type that aren't outdated; stainless steel appliances are simply too commercial; likewise, closets must be enormous and special shoe closets must be available for the hundreds of pairs of shoes; and so forth. Are those houses lovely? Yes, they are. It is all about attitude.

 And, I must admit, that sometimes I am looking at houses through the lens of my current age and life situation. What I would, in the past, have seen as a wonderful home, I now see as a house that would be a terrible burden to clean and keep up! (And the tiny houses just look like fun!)

Of course, there are days and days of reading or listening to books on my Kindle. Though I have always loved the look, feel, and even the smell of "real" books, my vision these days makes e-books much easier to read. And it is so easy to obtain a new book--look it up on Amazon or Audible, purchase, download, and there I go!



While listening to books, I need a focal point that keeps my eyes and hands busy and uses a different part of my brain than that used for absorbing the book. So...I have been working in various adult coloring books, using a variety of media--colored pencils, crayons, or markers (haven't used paint pens for a while).


So that is what I have been doing.

What I have not been doing:

• Cleaning house
• Organizing and discarding unneeded items
• Blogging
• Keeping up with Facebook or even going on the Internet at all some days.

Okay, I do keep up the laundry, run the dishwasher from time to time, make my bed, and swab out the bathrooms when necessary. I don't live in absolute squalor. But I have not felt like doing the deeper cleaning and, if there is a little clutter here or there, there is no one to see it but me.

One of these days, I know from past experience, my mood will change, I'll get my house in order, the sun will shine, it will become actual spring, I'll be thinking about flowers and planting my deck pots, and, hopefully, get myself in gear and go for walks.

But, in the meantime, there are more books to read/listen to, more interesting houses to look at via TV, and more quiet days (always soothing to my introvert's heart.)



Currently working in this book about
Ancient Egypt.

One Hundred Years

My mother was born 100 years ago today. She narrowly escaped being a Leap Year's Baby of 1916. Her mother named her Rosa May Mackey, but the doctor entered "Rose May Mackey" on her birth certificate.

The Mackey family in 1916: Back Row--Will, Rhoda holding baby
Rose; Front Row--Vera and William Boyce.

Mother died in December of 2010, so she did not quite make it to the century mark. Her almost 95 years left a big mark on her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, as well as so many others whose lives she touched. I've lost count of her descendants, but she is widely known as Grandma Rose.

When she died, her body was afflicted with many age-related problems, but her mind was always her own. I like to think of her with her strength and energy restored in Paradise. Happy Heavenly Birthday, Mother!

Tiny House Obsession

I have recently developed a bit of an obsession with the Tiny House Movement.

There are at least three television shows that deal with people finding, buying, or building tiny houses to live in--Tiny House World, Tiny House Hunting, and Tiny House Nation. They have been on the air for a few years, but I hadn't noticed until recently. Then I became fascinated. I have seen living spaces ranging from 700 square feet to a mere 98 square feet. Most seem to be in the 200-300 square foot range.

I think the thing that most fascinates me about these tiny living spaces is the ingenuity involved in design and development. Can you have kitchen, living, dining, sleeping, and bathroom spaces in such a small area? The answer is "yes" and I have seen some amazingly creative designs to make that possible.

This was the country school teacherage in 1945.

It measured about 7 or 8 x 10 or 12 feet and four of us

lived in it. No running water, no indoor plumbing,

heated by a small wood/coal burning stove.

It is also interesting to see how much stuff people have to give up and get rid of in order to live in these tiny houses. And even more interesting, perhaps, is the fact that after the difficulty of the purging, the new tiny house dwellers feel so free.

Now, I do like stuff. I have stuff that I don't want to give up. I also have stuff that I could live without quite contentedly, but I don't know what to do with it. I am working on that. I don't want to get rid of everything, but I definitely want to lighten the load and I think I can lighten it quite a lot. I have made a start; there is a long way yet to go. I'm just doing a little bit at a time, whenever the mood hits me.

I have actually lived in tiny houses in the past. I have blogged about "The Rabbit Hutch" house our mother and her first three children--of which I am one--lived in when she taught country school while our dad was away in the army during WWII.

This is me in the corner of our first little house, ready

to go to a banquet in May 1967, about a month before our

marriage (I moved in when we found the house, to hold it).

I am in the corner of the living room. The curtain is the

 bedroom "door." The heater in the corner of the photo is

in another corner of the living room. I wish I had a photo of

the outside of this little house, but, I do not. (Gotta love my

 glasses. Oh, my, styles do change.)

When Jerry and I married we lived in a little house that sat on the back of the lot behind a bigger house. It was not cramped for two people. I don't know what the square footage was, but it had a small living room, small bedroom, small but pleasant dining room. and a little kitchen. There was even a bonus area equal in size to the kitchen area, that we had no use for! (We did not have much stuff at that time.) My guess is that it was probably about 500 square feet. I have very fond memories of that little house.

My current home falls into the small house category, though it does not really feel small to me at 1,000 square feet. It is a downsize from the house I sold and moved from after Jerry's death. That, while not a huge house, was, at 1500 (and a little) square feet, very roomy for us. Before that we had lived in a 1,000 square foot mobile home quite comfortably.

July 4, 1968. Here I am in our first little house dining

room. The width of the room ran from the left edge of

the photo to the other side of the kitchen door, the left side

of which is visible on the right side of the photo. 

Would I really want to go smaller? I know I could, and be comfortable. One problem is that I do like to have space for visitors. If I went as tiny as many of the houses I've been so fascinated by, I guess the solution would be putting out-of-town guests up in a motel--after all I don't have that many visitors. But I would miss their presence in my home.

And, for me, a tiny house would have to be connected to a sewer system. I know that composting toilets (the solution for many of the moveable tiny houses) are considered wonderfully "green," but I practically gag at the thought of actually living with one. I've lived with outhouse toilets. As unpleasant as they are, at least they are not in the house. I know composting toilets are not supposed to be smelly, but I find the very idea positively revolting.

Tiny house living could be a money-saver, could bring on a sense of freedom from tending to "things," and would mean certain sacrifices and adjustments. Many people find that very much worth doing.

I'm glad I am not actually thinking about moving right now! I like where I am. I just need to get rid of some excess baggage and make it even better.

Ah, Christmas!

I have always loved Christmas. So much excitement as a child. Visits home to spend the holiday with my parents and family during college and the years we were raising our own family. Christmas at our own home many years and getting to experience all the Christmas wonder with our children. Decorating the Christmas tree every year with my granddaughter. Opening a gift on Christmas Eve after lovely Christmas Eve church services, and the Christmas morning gift opening with a mound of discarded wrapping paper and boxes (which my son-in-law very efficiently takes care of), followed by my daughter's breakfast casserole. And, of course, Christmas music through the season (I've got quite a collection).

Christmas has changed as I move through life, but I still love it. There have been Christmases shadowed by sorrow, Christmases when I had a sick child or was ill myself, but it was still Christmas!

I leave the Christmas decorations up until after New Year's Day, and the house looks very dull and plain till my eyes and brain readjust to the everyday look of things. This year I have put up some decorations, but haven't had Megan here to do the tree with me. I'm saving that for when she gets home.

People are so busy these days, and cards and stamps are increasingly expensive, so fewer and fewer people are actually sending Christmas cards. I still enjoy them, but certainly understand why we are all cutting back.

So, here is my contribution to the Christmas Letter tradition for this year: