Our Family – Zuzu and Papa

June 1, 2021

Scribbles

Lila loves to get my ink pens and scribble. Her scribbles are beautiful to me. They are precious pieces of art, because I just love her so much and anything she does is special.

I have kept so many of my children’s scribbles, pieces of art work and flowers (and weeds) that they handed me with love. These things are so precious to me because they were given with a pure heart – “Mommy, look what I drew!” I still have flowers pressed in books from 25 years ago.

I wonder if God feels the same when we give him our heart and our limited talents and abilities? I hope so. We may feel our lives are just a scribble, but I think he sees a masterpiece. He sees what we can be.

June 18, 2013

Chipped Plates

This is one of those blessings that you have to go all around the circle and as you’re coming back around, you realize that you can be thankful for it.

I registered for Wedgwood, Queen’s Shape everyday dishes when we got engaged. I received about 12 place settings. We don’t use them every single day, but I do bring them out quite a bit. I like using the salad plates for our breakfast because they’re the perfect size.

Yesterday, as I was washing the ones we had just used, I noticed that every single one of them has a nasty chip on the side. I am assuming that these chips came from slinging them around too hard when they were being washed. I also noticed that one of my big serving platters has a crack almost all the way across. Now, I’m not placing blame on anyone here, but some people in the family wash dishes like it’s a race at the speedway – slinging them here and there, smacking them on the faucet and throwing them into the dishwasher.

How in the world can this be a blessing?

I’m thankful for:

~ the nice plates, chips and all ~

~ food to serve on them ~

~ a husband and children to wash them ~

~ a family to sit around the table and eat from them ~

This is a thought that could just keep on rolling along. I could talk about how I am not the same glossy plate that I was 22 years ago and how I’ve gotten chipped up along the way, but that all those chips mean I’ve lived a good life and have had tons of battles and blessings, but I’ll save that thought for another time!

Blessings to you today!

March 14, 2013June 18, 2013

Letting Things Go…is hard

Oh, how quickly things accumulate in our lives. There comes a time when it’s just time to let things go. I am extremely sentimental. Things bring back warm, happy feelings of good times and good people. That’s why I save things. I can look through my matchbook collection and relive years and years of vacations, youth trips and weddings. My childhood diaries bring me such joy. I love comparing the way life was in the 70’s to the way it is now. Really, it’s a different world and I feel that my children have missed out by not having such a simple life.

Most of my belongings have been stored in big plastic bins outside in the garage/barn, because there is no room in the inn. That means I have no storage in the house. We made a big investment in a dumpster (the kind they haul to your house and haul away when full…the kind on construction sites), and I’m telling you, it’s been the best investment we’ve made in awhile.

It was hard deciding what was keepable and what was not. When I found the bin of Christmas cards dating from 1990, I sat down with my daughter and went through them one by one. We smiled at all the children’s pictures – children who now have little ones of their own. My daughter was amazed and we truly enjoyed our time together. Then, I tossed them. At that point, I felt like I was on the show “Hoarders”.

I let Claire go through her toys. The Barbies went. The Polly Pockets went. But, the American Girl dolls stayed. Hannah’s Breyer horse collection is staying.

All of the sports trophies that seem to reproduce like rabbits are going. I have the children’s permission. Seriously, the trophy business in our town is surely a booming business, because trophies are handed out like candy.

I am keeping the Feltman Bro.’s baby clothes and the beautiful handmade dresses Aunt Becky made.

Then, I found the children’s schoolwork from preschool through kindergarten. There were Mother’s day hand prints, Thanksgiving turkeys and spring flowers. I went back to feeling 30 years old for a few moments. I picked out about 20 of the best pieces to keep, smiled over the rest, remembered those fun years…and let it go. That was hard, I’ll be honest. But, I have large art folders for each child and so, I really do have enough beautiful artwork.

Decorative pillows. Stuffed animals. Now, don’t they mutate just like the trophies? I took them to Goodwill.

I have so much more to go, but it’s a great feeling to let go of things.

One piece of kindergarten artwork I’ll treasure forever…Hannah knew what her passion would be at a very early age – horses!

November 20, 2012June 1, 2021

Another Boomer story…

We have a coon dog, Boomer. I’ve written about this wily dog before. He was the dog Will picked out at the animal shelter when he just HAD to have a dog. We love him, most of us anyway, but he is a problem child. Very strong willed and sneaky. He actually smiles, curling up his lips and showing his teeth when he has been caught doing something naughty, like stealing eggs from the hen house, or shredding shoes, or digging in the mulch.

Boomer and our lab, Butch, have learned to dig out of their pen. We have tried, very unsuccessfully, to fix it so that they cannot dig out, but they are so determined that after an hour or so, they end up back on the porch covered in dirt. It’s not a little, confined pen, either. It’s big with nice dog houses and a lot of running room. They have tasted freedom, though, and want no part of it any more.

Butch is not a barker, but heaven help us, Boomer has that coon dog howl that will drive a person mad, especially at night when all the ‘critters’ of the woods come out. In my weak, sleepless moments, I have resorted to stuffing a hot dog with sleep aids and feeding it to him in the middle of the night. A mama’s got to do what a mama’s got to do.

For the past few weeks, we have been able to catch the dogs and put them in the feed room of the barn. It’s nice and comfy and has a door that they cannot possibly squeeze out of. Boomer has caught on to the plan now, though, and will not let anyone catch him when it’s time to go up for the night.

So, last night was a fiasco. The moon was shining brightly and he could see everything in the fields and woods. His howling started at 10:30. I had been asleep about an hour. Well, Victor was snoring in one ear and the dog was barking in the other, so I looked for an alternate sleeping place. I went to the couch in the family room – in the back of the house where I thought I couldn’t hear Boomer. We have a huge barn fan that we turn on at night that should drown out all noises, but nooooo.

Around 2:30, I just couldn’t take it anymore. Boomer was going crazy in the back yard. I called him to the door, grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and hauled him into Victor’s office and shut him in there.

Victor woke up about that time and I said, “Boomer is in your office. So help me, if you let him out and I hear him bark in the wee hours of the morning, it will be all your fault.” Now, that made no sense, but I was losing it by then.

So, Victor got up about 4ish and found Boomer comfortably snoozing in his prayer chair. Papa was not happy! Boomer does not have a fresh aroma to say the least. He runs far, far away when he sees that we are going to give him a bath. The chair is airing out on the porch. Poor old Boomer was hauled out to the barn so Mama could have a couple hours of rest.

What a night.

November 3, 2012August 6, 2013

Chipped Plates

This is one of those blessings that you have to go all around the circle and as you’re coming back around, you realize that you can be thankful for it.

How in the world can this be a blessing?

I’m thankful for:

~ the nice plates, chips and all ~

~ food to serve on them ~

~ a husband and children to wash them ~

~ a family to sit around the table and eat from them ~

Blessings to you today!

September 20, 2012June 18, 2013

Differences in Marriage

My husband and I are very much alike in our beliefs and our values.

We agree politically (though he’s a bit more verbal and opinionated).

We agree spiritually.

We agree on how to rear our children.

In our personalities, though, we are completely different.

He is outgoing with nary a shy bone in his body.

He has energy that never stops.

He gets animated when he is around people.

I know we are not the only ones with major differences in our personalities. This summer, a friend showed me some pictures that she had taken when she and her husband went to the beach.

My friend loves the beach! She couldn’t wait to get her toes in the sand!

Her husband, however, can not really be described as a beach bum. Check out the black pants, white socks and sneakers.

I’m thinking a mountain vacation would have been more to his liking!

August 24, 2012June 18, 2013

High School

I went to open house at the high school last night. I had such a nostalgic feeling as I walked through the halls and smelled the science lab and the gym. Do you remember the smell of the gym? That floor wax smell? It hasn’t changed a bit.

There are all kinds of new gadgets and gizmos that weren’t around 30 years ago when I was in high school, but basically, kids are the same. They’re trying to find their place. They’re trying not to stand out or be different. Well, most of them anyway.

I got a little excited as I walked from class to class to meet the teachers. What was my teacher (my daughter’s teacher) going to be like? Should I sit in the front or the back? I found myself sending my daughter a text when I found out that she was having two tests today. “You’re having a Spanish test! Are you studying?”

And another text, “Oh, my goodness, sweetie! You’re having a vocab test in English! Are you studying?”

The reply: “Mom. Yes.”

If I had to go back and ‘do’ high school all over again, with the wisdom I have gained through the years, I would tell myself to branch out some. I wouldn’t be so afraid of the ‘potheads’ or the kids who smoked outside. I would get to know more people.

I would most definitely put a little more effort into my work. I made good grades, but I could have made better. I could have pushed myself more.

I would tell myself to not worry so much about fashion or style or where my friends bought their clothes.

But, all that stuff was important then and it’s still important now to teenagers. It may take them 30 years to realize that what really mattered was how they treated people. That’s what they will remember.

August 21, 2012June 18, 2013

Hannah’s Horse Paintings

I was cleaning my daughter’s room yesterday and found these paintings.

She was working on them last week.

I know because I saw her washing out brushes in the kitchen.

But, she never showed me the paintings.

To my quiet, reserved, humble middle child…

I will find your talents and show them to the world!

July 9, 2012June 18, 2013

Playhouses

My sister and I cultivated our housekeeping skills at an early age by always keeping a ‘playhouse’ somewhere in the house and outside. We would set up play areas here and there, usually with Barbie dolls and baby dolls in the house. One special place I remember in the basement was at the bottom of the stairs, underneath the stairwell, in between the stairs and the hot water heater. There was a piece of furniture that made the third wall of our playhouse and a ledge under the steps. This was a fantastic playhouse, especially since we could really hide and hear the goings on of the grown ups while we were carrying on our own little life.

In the summers, things got a lot more elaborate. There was a trail from our house into the woods and we found a relatively flat spot to be our playhouse. There were lots of large grape vines and these were used as couches, beds and shelves. They were also good room partitions for our kitchen and bathroom. We saved Mother’s empty Merle Norman jars and bottles for our playhouse bathroom and carried armloads of empty Campbell’s soup cans and spice jars for our kitchen. Probably these relics are still down there underneath years of leaves.

Imaginative play is so very important for children. I always tried to foster a love of pretend in my little ones. They loved boxes – the bigger the better – and they would have so many adventures in their little hiding places.

Of course, couch cushions were the perfect building materials for their walls and tunnels. I never minded my den being destroyed because I knew the children were using their wonderful imaginations and more importantly, were not watching t.v.! Of course, all the extra blankets were pulled out to make the roofs for the houses and tunnels.

So, here’s to playhouses, clubhouses, forts, tunnels and tree houses! Hours and days spent in wonderful worlds far away.

Mindy Hill said…

I loved the day mom washed the sheets and let us play with the ones she took off the beds. We would make tents like crazy with them. Also, mom would make me Barbie cars, table, etc from the cardboard Tide boxes. I loved those cars so much because she would do a backseat also and four of my Barbies could fix in it.