Snippets and Tidbits

What F-A-M-I-L-Y Means

I ran into a stranger as he passed by,
“Oh, excuse me, please” was my reply.
He said, “Please excuse me too;
I wasn’t watching for you.”

We were very polite, this stranger and I. We went on our way
and we said goodbye.

But at home a different story is told,
How we treat our loved ones, young and old.

Later that day, cooking the evening meal, My son stood beside
me very still.

When I turned, I nearly knocked him down. “Move out of the
way” I said with a frown.

He walked away, his little heart broken. I didn’t realize how
harshly I’d spoken.

While I lay awake in bed, God’s still small voice came to me
and said, “While dealing with a stranger, common courtesy you
use, but the children you love, you seem to abuse.
Go and look on the kitchen floor, you’ll find some flowers
there by the door. Those are the flowers he brought for you.
He picked them himself, pink, yellow and blue. He stood very
quietly not to spoil the surprise, And you never saw the tears
that filled his little eyes.

By this time, I felt very small, and now my tears began to fall.

I quietly went and knelt by his bed,
“Wake up, little one, wake up,” I said.
“Are these the flowers you picked for me?” He smiled, “I found
’em, out by the tree. I picked ’em because they’re pretty like
you. I knew you’d like ’em, especially the blue.”

I said, “Son, I’m very sorry for the way I acted today; I
shouldn’t have yelled at you that way.

“He said, “Oh, Mom, that’s okay I love you anyway.”

I said, “Son, I love you too, and I do like the flowers,
especially the blue.”

Are you aware that if we died tomorrow, the company that we
are working for could easily replace us in a matter of days.
But the family we left behind will feel the loss for the rest
of their lives. And come to think of it, we pour ourselves
more into work than to our own family – an unwise investment
indeed, don’t you think?

So what is behind the story? It’s all said in what the word
FAMILY means:

Since we still had massive party fare, we cooked hamburgers and hot dogs and Lisa brought a beautiful fruit tray. Jenny baked cookies and brought some corn on the cob, which we grilled. Everything was yummy.

Sean was in rare form- he’s so entertaining and Libby was a bit grumpy because she had to work and felt a bit left out. Of course, Sean had to say something uncomfortable to his brother, which I think is a requirement, and then the tense moment passed.

The rain moved in and since that seems to be the best time to light fireworks (according to my neighbor) we were treated to a fireworks display two houses down. How’s that for convenient? Sitting on my porch, surrounded by friends, all with well fed tummies and laughter AND get to have your own personal fireworks display. Couldn’t beat that!

Gerald had to work in the morning, so he left early-ish and then Jr. went home, Sean and Libby fell asleep and shortly after, Sr. did as well, leaving Dave, Jenny, Lisa, Me and Meg. (or as Dave puts it, himself and the Estrogen Brigade)

We played Uno until Meg was sleepy and wanted Jenny to go home, dwindling our group to just three of us. We played Uno, got to know one another a bit better with some good and open conversation and ended up calling it quits around 4:00am.

This means that my 4th will be spent the way Frank and I like it… quiet. We will watch a movie we’ve had out from Netflix for about 2 months now and maybe one other show I’ve been trying to get to and have something we rarely slow down enough to do… a holiday.

The Party
After much preparation, we had the big party on June 23. I had been worried that there would be raging thunderstorms or oppressive heat, but the gods blessed us with a simply wonderful day. Little to no humidity ( a blessing in Maryland, people) clear blue skies and a slight breeze to flutter the luau fringe on the deck. It was perfect.

Not as many people showed up as had said they would, the nature of the beast that is a party, but being the hostess, I didn’t want to be caught unprepared so I had procured victuals for slightly more people than had said would come, thus, now I have a larder padded with party food! Even without the additional people, there was a steady flow of people through the house and the grill was rarely off. The moon bounce was whirring off to one side and the giggles and screams of laughter from those jumping was a happy sound.

Many thanks need to be said to my friends, Jenny and Dave, for helping me set up and tear down. It would not have been nearly as enjoyable for me without their help and having them there. We wrapped up the long day around 1 AM, and all seemed good.

Sunday after the party was the proverbial “day of rest”. We all were sleepy and slow, which is a good and rare condition for anyone to see me in. I usually have an AGENDA of things to be done and I’m told that it contains more things to do than could ever be done in a day. I knew that I had to drive to South Carolina the next day with my two grand daughters and that it would be a bit of a haul. I was exhausted and I still had a visit from my mother-in-law to stay awake through. Poor thing, she rarely visits and yet here I am trying to stay awake. An early evening to bed was in store for everyone.

The Trip
Monday was the traveling day for the girls and I. I can’t tell you how much coffee I downed, but 12 hours later- and lots of stops for little girls to eat, pee and stretch our legs- we pulled into our hotel parking lot. Heather had asked if I could keep the girls the first night so we had a great time in my big bed having a slumber party. We watched cartoons and snacked on a few things I had brought with me and then we all passed out in a cuddly tumble of sweet smelling little girls. (They said they wanted to smell like Nini, so we had a little spray fest of my perfume!)

The next day we played at the McDonald playground which was adjacent to my hotel while we waited for Heather to go to the baby’s Dr. appointment. She came a bit later and I got to see Lillianna and Sebastian. Lillie is the spitting image of her mother when she was the same age and I had multiple flashbacks to when Heather was a little girl. Bittersweet, because Heather was a gorgeous little girl and she and I had a great time together, but that whole era in my life was not an easy one and some memories not so pleasant.

We decided to use my hotel pool and got the kids put together to swim with Heather, while I loved the baby and sniffed his head! (That’s a rule, btw, you must sniff babies heads… they smell so good.) Thankfully, Sebastian is a relaxed and calm baby and marriage seems to suit Heather because she seemed a bit more relaxed and able to go with the flow.

When H got home, she found that she had gotten a notification in the mail about court and that she had to appear the next day. Bummer! That meant that on Wednesday, I would stay with the kids, but it would be a stay at home day. Heather was in court, waiting for her case, for over 6 hours. Sebastian, who is a breastfed, took his first bottles ever without even blinking an eye.

Willow and Holly have an extensive collection of dress up’s, courtesy of Nini and The Mouse, so they were happily parading around as Snow White and Princess Aurora with Lillie in an older- and smaller- Tinkerbell costume. They wanted a play scenario so here is what I came up with….(this should explain why my kids are a bit zany at times) I was the Evil Queen (of course) who had stolen their little brother, Prince Sackofpotatoes (pictured above) and was instead calling him Prince Poopypanties and pretending he was my son. Their cousin, Prince Porkchop, had told them the real truth about my having stolen the Prince Sackofpotatoes at birth from their Mother the Good Queen, and told them they needed to find a way to save their brother so that the Royal Meal could be complete. At first, Lillie was on their side, but she climbed the couch and became enchanted by my spell and was then, my minion. The Princess’ tried to plot and scheme and think of a way to get into my lair but I had an army of Dirty Diaper Soldiers protecting my gates and every time I caught sight of a Princess, my soldiers would fling themselves (with my magical powers of course) at the Princess. If a Diaper Soldier hit the Princess, she fell into a deep, deep sleep that only the sprite Lillianna could awaken them from. (OK- these were CLEAN diapers I was pitching around the house…but we were pretending… I even wore one on my head as a crown!!) The Princess’ called to my sprite as she collected my Diaper Soldiers and returned them to my care, and if she deigned to give some love to each Princess, they were revived and able to attempt another rescue mission.

Heather’s court went well enough, but the day was toast and Nini was worn out so it was an early night.

On Thursday it was a bit overcast, so we decided to go to a buffet pizza place and then to an ingenious place called House of Bounce. Some wise old soul has made the latest in play areas for children that are all the rage. I had heard of something similar up here as well. The concept is to find some warehouse space, buy multiple moon bounces, put down some soft flooring and voila!! A kid paradise. You sign the waiver at the front door saying you don’t hold them liable if a kid falls and hurts themselves and then your child has hours of running around in a climate controlled area bouncing and sliding and having a blast. Wish I had thought of it…. sheesh!

Friday we had the option of either going to the Children’s Museum in Charleston (which I hear is a fabulous place to go) or to see a new movie. Since their Daddy is a chef, the girls chose to see Ratatouille. It was a good movie. I’m not sure the storyline was as understandable to them as it was to me, but they seemed to enjoy it anyway. Besides, the two sodas and the one big bucket of popcorn that was all for them (can eyes get that wide???) were a big hit too.

Saturday was another travel day for me. Again I was tired, but the ride was nice and it was good to play my music and just enjoy being on the road. It always goes much better when you are the driver and not the passenger….maybe it’s a control thing.