To Save a Life......

To save a life the doctors are giving my father poison.

It sounds wrong.

I pray it's right.

But that's what they do when your body is full of things that shouldn't be there. Things that they don't know how or why, exactly, started growing. They just did.

It feels wrong to set and watch your father's face grow paler by the second as the poison slowly drips through the tube, through the needle and into his vein.

It is wrong.

But I pray that it will become right.

He was the first man in my life.

I adore him.

He is strong, resourceful, patient, loving, thoughtful, honest, handsome, intimidating (at times, if he needs to be), courageous, peaceful, smart, fun, funny, studious, kind, doting, clean, and safe.

And he's sick.

I'd rather it be me.

He's glad it's him. That's just how he is.

I've wondered if it's easier to loose your hair when you don't have much.

He claims that it will be, with a smile and twinkle in his eye.

From where I stand he's facing this challenge much the same as I'm sure he has all of the challenges of his life.

With quiet resolute strength.

I haven't heard him ask why. May be he has.

Without a doubt I have.

In my minds eye I see him 34 years ago, black wavy hair and gray blue eyes opening the door for me to climb into our old red Volkswagen.

It was a Saturday and we were going to put gas in the car. Somehow I talked him into taking me to the toy store. I walked out of the store with a new dress for my Barbie doll, it was pink and lace and he thought it was just as beautiful as I did.

Then it was off to the gas station. A trip to the gas station wasn't complete without a bottle of  orange soda pop and some crackers.

Arms full of treats and Barbie dresses I remember setting next to him and looking up in awe at how handsome he was. I told him thank you and how much I loved him.

I remember I was sure he didn't understand exactly how much I loved him because I didn't know the words or how to arrange those words so he could understand.

Now here I am three decades later and I feel the same way. I haven't learned the right words to properly express my love, adoration, appreciation and gratitude in  a way that truly encompasses my feelings about and for my father.

His life has been spent in service to his family, his neighbors and his country. It has given him understanding that is spoken in the kind depths of his eyes and the soft curve of a smile that never completely leaves his face.

Time and experience have made my dad even more handsome than he was when I was 3 or even when he was 30.

What would I do to save a life.....his life?

Anything......

Everything......

I pray......I love.....

and I watch as they give him poison.

Image source

My friend pinned this blog post/article on Pinterest.

It's just too good and too powerful and too true not to share.

Christmas and Dr. Seuss

A friend has a fun little poem her family uses when buying their children's Christmas presents.

She shared it with me years ago and we've used it ever since.

Something you want.

Something you need.

Something to wear.

Something to read.

Perfect right!

So I've been researching books at Amazon.com for ideas and it's reminded me how much I love reading and how much I owe to.....

Dr. Seuss
The author to beat all authors.
When I was 4 or 5 my dad bought me this book.
I loved it like no other.
I had everyone........everyone read it to me.

Not in Latin.....(sigh)....but I know I would have loved it in any language.
This was also the first book I ever read by myself.
I'm sure it was because I already had it memorized.
I heard my dad telling my kids the other day, he learned to read by reading the funnies in the newspaper. 

And that got me to thinking about good old Dr. Seuss. I figure I owe a lot to him.

Because he introduced me to a fascinating world of funny colored food and foxes in boxes I've also discovered green rolling hills in the English countryside, heroes and heroines who are brave and sometimes tragic, and how exhilarating it can be to ride a wild horse in the hills of Australia.

Ah, the adventures I've been on through reading.
It's funny too, how certain books, like certain smells or songs, can bring back vivid memories and sometimes it's fun to softly follow those memories where ever they may lead.

The Foot Book
"Left foot, left foot, right foot, right..... Feet in the morning and feet at night..."
Is just one such book.
When our oldest was born we received about 3 copies of this book free in the mail.
We being new parents and not having built up our library of children's literature...yet.. read said book to our young offspring.
She - LOVED - IT!
10 - 25 - 40 times a day we'd read this book to her.
She had it memorized before she could speak (which she started doing around 10 months, I thought that was normal.)By 11 or 12 months she could quote the whole book.
Needless to say we started hiding it, but she'd always find it and ask us to read it again.
Now she's a literature lunatic ☺

My husband gave me 
Oh the Places You'll Go
our first Christmas together (married) and this started a great tradition of him giving me a children's picture book every year. I LOVE that tradition.
I had no idea how true this book would be to our life together though.

Today I'm celebrating my love for literature.
I probably should have saved this post until Dr. Seuss' birthday but I have no idea when that is, maybe February I don't know.

My point is I'm glad my parents found something that inspired me to keep reading and discovering the treasures within printed words.

If kids can find something that captures their imagination they'll keep reading.
Even if it's not GREAT LITERATURE as long as they're reading they can't lose.
And let your kids see and hear you reading......they'll be intrigued and want to try it out. Truthfully what child doesn't think the sun, moon and stars revolves around their parents?

I wish I could say all of my reading has made me a great speller and writer, sadly no such luck. But, I'd like to think I'm better than I would have been if I didn't love to read.
Now that would be scary.
And, lucky for me, blogger (at least) has spell check.
Now,
Go,
Find a child
and
Read to him/her!
GO!
YOU CAN DO IT ON A TRAIN, YOU CAN DO IT IN THE RAIN.
YOU CAN DO IT HERE AND THERE, YOU CAN DO IT ANYWHERE!!!!

Treasures

My parents cleaned out their attic and basement earlier this year.

As a result my attic and basement are now full of my old junk and their old ping-pong table (which we love!!!).

Some of it has been fun to go through....old dance costumes, letterman's sweater (I didn't want a jacket.), old school papers, childhood diaries, etc.

.....some of it not so much.....junk my kids think they need to keep, embarrassing old school photos/assignments and notes to friends, etc.

.....some of it I'm keeping....

...and some of it has made it's way to D.I./Goodwill and some to the trash.

However, I did find two treasures that are not leaving my possession under any circumstance. Even if they aren't necessarily mine....they are now.

Treasure #1 the car pictured above. It belonged to my oldest brothers so I'm guessing it's late 1950's early 1960's. I love it. I remember playing with it too. Currently it's setting on a shelf and it makes me smile when I walk by. But I have let my little ones play with it....just a tiny bit.....they love it too.

Treasure #2 my dad's freshman button from college. It's still blue and gold (although faded) and you can see his name (barely) written in his own hand.....circa 1947.

When I asked my dad about it he said he had to wear that button and a matching blue and gold tie and beanie every day to class. I was curious to see if he still had the beanie and tie, he told me "Somehow the beanie got "lost","  a couple of days after he got it and he hadn't seen the tie in years.

I was a little disappointed because it would have been great to put all three in a shadow box with a picture of my dad but at least I have the button.

With these two treasures in mind I've been finding it nearly impossible to thin out my boy's toys and some other things that have been hanging around.

We need the space and less clutter but a lot of those things have good memories for the boys.

Maybe I'll put them in a box and when they have a house of their own I'll call them on the phone and say, "Boys, come get your stuff out of my attic." and then they can deal with it.

I guess, now I know why I inherited so many boxes of my childhood stuff these past few months......

Understanding Preschool Boy Speak, I mean Language!

I've been a mother now for 13 & 3/4 years, plus I have three boys. So I thought I might impart to you a little I've learned about The Preschool Boy.


It occurred to me that just when you start to get the whole toddler thing down, I mean just when you're really understanding what they need from you and what you need to do to avoid the ill-timed, embarrassing melt-down, they turn into a preschooler. A whole new species in and of its self. A bizarre sort of creature these preschoolers. For example they have mastered quite a bit of the English language. Their language skills are starting to become more evident but their language application quite often is muddled and hard to understand. It's important to know that miss-interpreting a preschooler can be as fatal as giving a toddler their blue sippy-cup when they wanted the green one because it's their favorite as of 2 seconds ago and they failed to let you know, or giving them Goldfish crackers when they wanted a Ritz ----- deadly! In order to be a happy successful parent to a preschooler it's vital that you not take what they say too literally, also knowing what they were doing precisely before they spoke to you is invaluable.

Lets take a look at some real examples of Preschool Speak and their translations. Shall we?

No creations on T.V.

I knew he had just been watching Curious George on PBS.

Translation: Mother, will you please turn the captions off on the television. The words are getting in the way of the picture.

Vanilla Wipe-Outs please?

It was snack time

Translation: I'm rather hungry mother and would like a snack. I think Nilla-Wafers would satisfy my hunger. May I please have some?

I don't want Little Mermaid show - too girly.

I knew he didn't like it the first time he watched but I thought I'd ask anyway.

Translation: I really don't want to watch that show again because the main person is a girl who sings and dances and I don't know if you've noticed mom but I'm a guy's guy. I want a show with action and adventure, if something blows-up even better. Plus, in Little Mermaid there's that Sea Witch and she really creeps me out.

My arms are broken.

Now this one is a little tricky because his arms could actually be broken. The key is to note the tone in which this is spoken i.e. is he screaming in pain? or did he just say it with maybe a hint of whining? Also it's of the utmost importance to know what he was doing right before he said this to you. In this particular instance he wanted to go outside and was trying to put on his jacket.

Translation: Dad's already outside and I don't want to be left behind. Please help me with my jacket because the arms are inside-out.

I hope that this may help in some small way as you try to navigate your way through the preschool years. If this doesn't help and your preschooler is having way too many moments of frustration from your lack of understanding his communication you can always resort to my old stand-by for a few moments of distraction and relief for/from your preschooler. Give him some goldfish crackers, a Capri-sun and turn on a non-girly show. This is probably what he was trying to tell you he wanted anyway.;)