I AM A SEENAGER.......

In one of those moods today......started out OK.....Patty called at 9:30 and had to escape her mad house and wanted to come for coffee.....I was not dressed, combed, barely had breakfast but COME!  She left and I showered and washed my hair and straightened the house up, even put a batch of laundry in.  Then decided to tackle my income tax......mistake.....can't find what I need, moving....selling a house.....buying a house etc......I don't know where to begin!!!! I have a feeling all the tax forms were not informed of my new address and who knows where they are?  wonder what would happen if I just ignored it this year????
        I was thinking....I am a Seenager.....you know a senior teenager.  I never worried about income tax when I was a teenager.......I now have everything that, I wanted as  teenager.....only 60 years later.
I don't have to go to school or work.
I get an allowance every month and have my own pad.......and I don't have a curfew.
 I have a drivers license and own my own car.
The people I hang around with aren't scared of getting PG and they do not use drugs.....and I don't have acne.   Life really is great......only I have to pay income tax!!!!!  I think I need to check on some sanity-preserving tactics for todays woman?

ON BEING A HOMEMAKER......

I figured this about covers everything you go through when you decided to be a Mother..........and then with the added duties of being a homemaker......only add to it.  Yes, I was a stay-at-home mom by choice and looking back over those years of raising three daughters....a single and a set of twins......I wouldn't change a day of  it..  I made it through and have three wonderful women with three great families, going through what I did .....or more.

'Here is a quiz;  What do you call the woman who does no child care but who cleans the house?  A cleaning woman.  What do you call the person who straightens the house and supervises the children?  A house keeper.  nd what do we call the woman who does child care but no housework?  A nanny......what do we call the one who does it all?  A nonworking mother."

When asked....."and what do you do?"  ......we usually respond that we are JUST mothers .....but if given a chance we could add;  That thaws hamburger in the dry cycle of the dishwasher, walks the dog, cleans the cat's litter box, plays cards with sick children and dress naked dolls or cuts out paper dolls or makes Christmas ornaments out of paper rings or popcorn.......and nurse a dead fern back to life! 

Combine the roles of cook, waitress, nurse, teacher, maid, chauffeur, psychologist, psychiatrist. doctor, and banker.....what do you get?  A mother!

With Mother's day coming up I wish my mother were still alive to thank her for the hundreds of wonderful things she taught me, did for me and put up with to raise me.....for those lucky enough to still have a mother......tell her thanks for not putting up for adoption in the teen years and still lovin' you.

BEING SINGLE........

 

As my 74th birthday is just a breath away.......I think I have found a new friend......someone I can relate to.....someone who thinks like I do!!!! MAXINE!  Being single and lonely is a condition shared by many my age......although you may prefer to be with others......being alone can over come you only if you let it.  Being single means a woman is capable of taking care of herself and coping on her own......When you first come out of marriage....(mine after 30 years).... you seem to feel your a severed half and have to work to become a complete person again.....can take up to five years! Think about the significant advantages of being single.......You can talk to yourself as much as you want......your cat or dog can sleep in your bed with you......You can bring home Sara Lee cake for two and each both portions......or drink a glass of wine and eat a bag of potato chips in bed while you watch.....what YOU want!  You learn to live in your todays instead of playing the old tune.....I'll be happy when.....all the whens are yours now!  So you have to get your own income tax ready each year, have the oil checked in your car and the tires rotated, balance your checkbook, buy mouse traps and spider spray, learn how to work the TV and Computer, change the furnace filters, pound nails, use the drill....bag the glue gun and I could go on and on with the little things some woman use their husbands for......BUT we know how to do it!  I do not like that song "Sleeping Single in a Double Bed".......though!

Pretty quiet day.....did go to Costco and fill up with their cheep gas and hem my neighbor's temple dress so not a complete loss.

EDUCATION........

CHURCH THIS MONTH IS ABOUT CHOICES AND CONSEQUENCES.......WE HAVE ALL BEEN OFFERED EDUCATION IN ONE FORM OR ANOTHER.....HIGH SCHOOL, COLLEGE, ETC.

A MAN WAS OUT WALKING IN THE DESERT WHEN A VOICE SAID TO HIM....."PICK UP SOME PEBBLES AND PUT THEM IN YOUR POCKET, AND TOMORROW YOU WILL BE BOTH SORRY AND GLAD".......'THE MAN OBEYED.  HE STOOPED DOWN AND PICKED UP A HANDFUL OF PEBBLES AND PUT THEM IN HIS POCKET.  THE NEXT MORNING HE REACHED INTO HIS POCKET AND FOUND DIAMONDS, RUBIES AND EMERALS.  AND HE WAS BOTH GLAD AND SORRY.  GLAD THT HE HAD TAKEN SOME......SORRY HE HANDN"T TAKEN MORE"........AND SO IT IS WITH EDUCATION.

TODAY'S EDUCATION IS AS AVAILABLE TO YOU AS YOUR COMMITMENT TO IT. WHEN YOU THINK ABOUT IT .....EDUCATION IS ABOUT THE ONLY THING LYING AROUND LOOSE IN THE WORLD, AND IT'S ABOUT THE ONLY THING A PERSON CAN HAVE AS MUCH OF AS HE IS WILLING TO HAUL AWAY......

WE SHOULD PROMISE OURSELVES TO LEARN SOMETHING NEW EVERY DAY!  A NEW WORD AND IT'S MEANING.......A BETTER WAY TO INVEST OUR MONEY.....A NEW RULE FOR GOOD HEALTH.....A NEW TALENT, TO PAINT, SEW, KNIT ETC.  WE SHOULD NEVER STOP LEARNING!!!!

GOTTA BE PERFECT......

 

I guess being the oldest of five siblings......I was always expected to be perfect......to set an example for the four younger children to follow????  It was hard sometimes and probably went to my head when I was young.....but Oh if they could see me now!  I am far from being a perfectionist.....I would love to be the kind of woman who can wear a white sweater to lunch without spilling on it......who always has good hair days......and who never walked out of a restroom without toilet paper trailing from her shoe......but I am not!  If only everything in your life could be perfect but the bathroom scales?  I think at one time I really aimed for this......but all it got me was tired....and old.  I wanted perfect children and when they sat on Santa's lap I wanted them to say things like...."All I want for Christmas is world peace?"  I don't remember for sure when I stepped off the perfection treadmill but today my battle cry is ......"It's good enough!"  I really like the idea of good enough.....it's a good enough dinner or the house is clean enough....we can benefit by doing lots of things "good enough."

I just give myself credit for what I have accomplished....I am who I am.....not what I do.  Ironing for instance is just for women who get nervous about wrinkles.....I say "If Betty Crocker doesn't make it.....neither do I."

Every plant in my house has had several near-death experiences.....I forget. Once you get past perfection you can scotch tape a unraveled hem.......smash store-bought brownies so they look homemade......hide dishes in the oven when someone knocks.....send borderline flu cases to school....chop down a tree instead of canning the apples ....buy products that say "taste home made."    Oh I could go on, but you get the idea for just facing the fact that:......'IT IS WHAT IT IS!".....and I am happy not being perfect.

GUILT SPONGE......

Love a night out with my kids.......Movie and dinner are always a treat.  Had Relief Society teachers this morning and off to lunch with Pam at noon......It was windy and cloudy and suddenly turned into a blizzard.....by five the sun was shinning and the storm was over......UTAH WEATHER!!!!!

I was reading an article that made me think......Am I a Guilt Sponge up soaks up blame for anything that goes wrong in my life????  Why was I the only one to feel guilty when the kids were late to school or we ran out of toilet paper?  It seems guilt is the hardest emotion to deal with because it is so pervasive.   It is almost invisible, like smog.  We can always find something to feel guilty about if we don't begin our new diet today........if we throw away a pop can that could be recycled......if we think about all the cellulite we have built up, if we didn't call a sick friend or we miss church.  It seems the ultimate guilt is feeling guilty over feeling guilty......One woman said she felt guilty when she does the dishes, she felt she should be playing with the kids.......and when she played with the kids she felt guilty she wasn't getting her dishes done!......Can a woman ever win? 

Woman are trained in our culture to think they are responsible for other people's happiness......so when anybody is unhappy.....we automatically think it is our fault....our unearned guilt flows from the "should" and "oughts" of everyday living.......I should clean the house, I should lose weight, I should visit a sick friend and on and on ......You just "should" all over yourself but all you end up needing is a bigger shovel!

SO....as I continue my gratitude month......helps me not feel guilty......... I am greatful  for good dreams.....

I am greatful when I get something right the first time I do it.......

I am greatful when I have something fun to look forward to.......

The first day the weather is warm enough for sandals and white pants......

When I find a favorite movie on TV.........

ON DIFFERENCES.......

 

Had a great day.......Sherrie and Ken brought me lunch and Pam came by to for a visit with us.......Love and miss seeing my girls and grandchildren.....but glad they are busy and happy!  Sherrie called and was cloud nine......they had 3 cars to drive to Vernal from the auction and Darren had to fly the airplane home.......sooooo Alex, Ken and Sherrie all climbed in one and took off and were in Roosevelt .....which is almost home......and Ken had done fine.  Now you have to know Ken and his problem with driving even the main road in Vernal has taken awhile to convince him he can do it.....so it was a huge leap he made today!!!!!

How can we all be the same.....but different?  But we are and I guess that is what makes the world go round.....My view is not the same as yours......but that is okay.  'To disagree, one doesn't have to be disagreeable"  (Barry Goldwater)

'No two persons ever read the same book" (Edmund Wilson)......that is so true, or see the same movie or witness the same car accident.......we all come from a different place and interpret things our way.......   Two people standing on the corner can witness the same accident and have two completely different versions of it.

"We all live under the same sky, but we don't have the same horizon."      (Konrad Adenauer}

"No two men are alike and both are happy for it"      (Morris Mandel)

"Some people march to a different drummer.....and some people polka."

Being different isn't a bad thing....in fact it is a very good thing.  Wouldn't life be boring if all 4 or 5 or whatever of your children were all exactly the same.....or every boy you ever went out with was exactly the same, or every teacher you ever had was the same etc.......even my identical twin girls are not the same......of which they are very happy for and I am too!

WHAT AM I GRATEFUL FOR TODAY????

I have traveled a lot and I was always thankful when finally arriving at my destination after a long journey.....

I am always thankful when people enjoy the food I make......because cooking stresses me out......

I am always thankful when my favorite store has sales.......

I am always thankful when a public restroom is clean when I am forced to use one.......

I am thankful for my pet's excitement when I come home from somewhere........