Memorial Day 2021

 

In Loving Memory with Gratitude 

May God Bless America and Heal Our Land

As we remember every life laid down and every life that served, may God continue to bless America. 

Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

No Bundle of Laughs Here

Many of you know what a challenge the month of May has become for me. It feels like one loss after the next these days and if I thought that things would settle down soon I was wrong. The incessant clouds, rain, and cold perfectly matches the mood. Sometimes it's tough to remember the good things. Very.

🌷Tulips are gracing my mother's grave this Memorial Day. They were a precious gift from Rosella whom you can find HERE. She does a beautiful job of explaining the engineering behind these special flowers and the purpose for it. Hint: Does it look like a red maple leaf? ☺
My sister and I have decided that my father will be laid to rest beside my mother. It feels right. It is something that he told my sister that he wanted. That he told me he wanted something else is a moot issue since we would prefer to have him nearer to us. 
His obituary is in the newspapers today...always a surreal reading. I now sit in his chair and have many of his things around me...more weirdness.

If anyone is interested, I have added an interview done with my father back in 2008 as the featured post. I think it is quite interesting, especially on this Memorial Day weekend.

Sunday will mark the first anniversary of my husband John's passing. It has been a rugged year for me and for his family. Missing someone never really goes away. One gets on with life, but never over the loss. I hope to write about some of the things that I have learned about John this year that I did not know before. Perhaps I can make that insightful and happy reading, but you should know that I am feeling very blue these days indeed so I appreciate your prayers. 
And on that less than cheery note, you have a blessed and meaningful Memorial Day weekend. 🌷 My apologies, but I am keeping comments closed. How does one chat with such a person as myself in times like these? Better days are coming!

It's Freezing!

Several posts ago now, I mentioned that I wanted to bake Lovella's Roasted Rhubarb Scones as soon as I could harvest some rhubarb. I baked them on Thursday when the heat in the house needed bumping. Oddly enough, there is no fireplace and no woodstove here. We probably could use one or both on days such as these have been. This morning, it snowed up north and in the mountains. Ugh. So tired of global cooling. (The weather in so many places is just plain crazy so I am a whiny wimp.)
My success with the scones may not have been great, though they tasted  good, especially if you love rhubarb! I may have to bump the sugar next time as mine were exceptionally tart.

~click for recipe~ Sorry about the final photo there...let's just say that my scones did not look quite as lovely as Lovella's. I can now officially document that the rhubarb in the Northeast is a month behind British Columbia (the Northwest). Figures!☺

  Bazil's time with us is drawing to a close. It has been so exciting to have him with us. He has been responsible for my laziness this past week. I really haven't been able to get out of his sight without a lot of whimpering, distress, and general separation anxiety. He said goodbye last Saturday to four of earth's dearest and he hasn't gotten over it yet. He'll be over the moon crazy with joy when they all are reunited. Bazil rhymes with frazzle. They'll be plenty frazzled all right.
It's Memorial Day Weekend. I have been amused by the news reports of how everyone is traveling because gas prices are .92 lower than last year at this time. What they fail to report is that they are also up by .69 this spring alone. The old half a truth is still a lie going on with this kind of reporting. So, no, we aren't traveling this Memorial Day, though I know that many of you are!

This morning, I was out taking photos of the beautiful blue sky and the flag when I looked back at my kitchen window and could see clear through to the other side of the house. Thought it made for an interesting photo about on par with the shovel of last time. That's the Roasted Rhubarb Scone recipe perched in the tea mug there.

 ~my front lawn~

I never grow tired of looking up at my neighbor's beautiful lawn and huge oak and maple trees. Lots of people have been tricked into thinking that the entire lawn is mine, but I've only mowed it once.

A meaningful and blessed holiday weekend to my fellow countrymen. We pray that the United States will have many more years to do good in the world and for its citizens. We honor the fact that we live in the Land of the Free because of the Brave.

Memorial Day Post 2014

Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; respect to whom respect; honor to whom honor.

~Romans 13:7

Tomorrow is Memorial Day. We have so much to still be thankful for in this country. It may not be the country I remember, yet it is the country I love. It is the country that so many have loved and have given their all to protect. We remember and honor them.

I have never been able to think of the day as one of mourning; I have never quite been able to feel that half-masted flags were appropriate on Decoration Day.  I have rather felt that the flag should be at the peak, because those whose dying we commemorate rejoiced in seeing it where their valor placed it.  We honor them in a joyous, thankful, triumphant commemoration of what they did.  ~Benjamin Harrison

Memorial Day 2013

Many in my family have served. None have lost their lives. Some have been injured; some have suffered with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, but none have paid the ultimate price. There may be some reading here today who have a very different story.

My closest link to a fallen soldier was through my grandmother whose dearest friend was a WWII widow. Her husband was shot down somewhere over the Mediterranean Sea in 1944; the wreckage was never found. She delivered a healthy baby boy not long after the loss. This is that little boy, his own photo taken with a photo of the father he never knew. How many similar photos grace homes across the country today?

The photo has been purposely blurred as this is not my story to tell nor my personal photo to share. I'm leaving this photo out for a few days just to remember by — to remember the price that has been paid over and over again. I wonder how many little boys and girls are growing up without a parent because that parent is one of our fallen heroes. The price is paid over and over again in multiple ways across time. Let us not forget to pray for those serving even today and their precious families.

God bless your day and may we never forget...

Gather Some Ferns

~Calming Green~

I was walking through Blogdom this morning and every footstep echoed after me. We are all thinking of Oklahoma and so many other things besides blogging. Some are finishing up homeschooling; some are gardening; some are dealing with the constant frustration that this particularly challenging spring has brought. Some are in the process of moving; some are dealing with loss, anxiety, the stuff of 

life. So many of us are away.

When I mentioned to one dear blogger that I was thinking of graves this morning, she got in touch with me right away. I was perplexed and couldn't imagine why she was worried, but then she had been sharing about BBQs and I wasn't. Talk about being on different pages. So funny! 

Well, yes, I am thinking about graves. In fact, I'd not been at my sister's more than a few minutes when that became the topic of discussion and we planned a trip for tomorrow to visit a few family graves. It will be an all-day event taking us up-country. Has Memorial Day taken on a larger meaning than only recognizing fallen war heroes there? It has here. It's become a day of recognizing all those who've gone before us. Hence graves are tended and flowers are purchased and most of us visit family graves before or on Memorial Day.

~Grounded Forsythia~

~Neighbors' Red Wheelbarrow~

~Rusty Basket and Dirty Deck~

~White Lilac~

~Lilac~

~A New Arrangement~

~Gather a Fern~

One of the most popular posts on my blog was *this Puttery Treat* that I did to join Brocante Home's Puttery Treat Challenge. (Alison also has a wonderful Pinterest board of Puttery Treats you may be interested in). By my definition, puttery treats must be easy-peasy, done quick as a wink, which is why I'm offering you a suggestion for a kind of puttery thing that you can do to instantly spring up the house and bring some green inside: Gather some ferns! Besides, green is so calming.

Memorial Day Weekend

 Run a lot

 Watch a lot

 Play Streamer Tag

 Keep those streamers airborne 

Take a break

Try on your super hero capes (made by Auntie)

 Tie on your jet packs (as seen on Pinterest by Auntie)

 Dream of Flying

 Keep on Trying

Get some help with the dream

Flap your wings a little and believe

(Mama does some encouraging; John does, too, while some of us can't help but giggle.)

What a guy!

Hope that your weekend was as much fun as mine...

***

My heart is full when I think of all those who have laid down their lives so that children can romp on a lawn, dream of flying, and live in a free country. We never forget that freedom is not "free." 

Memorial Day Gathering

It was a delight to have a meeting of the clan (most of it) over the weekend.  Note to self: It is always more fun to have these gatherings at someone else's place. In this case, someone else's place was my sister's. The pictures I am sharing today are of her flowers, her yard, her deck, her cars, her trees. Should I include my brother-in-law in this possession list?

Of course, you know that I loved seeing this bright yellow Adirondack chair first thing. The peonies weren't bad either.

 

These huge hostas line both sides of the drive. Note the steep stairs on either side. Fortunately for Nan, we were able to drive around to the back of the house as seen in the first picture so she stepped from the car directly to the deck.

My grand listens amused to his mother's discussions of why he should eat something besides his shoe. Goodness, I remember those days so well and both my kids lived to tell about it so I'm hoping that Sam gets hungry one day soon and eats a hamburger.

Sis does have a little red house and she also has a little red shed right behind these bleeding hearts. I think that it would make a cute playhouse for her grands some day. (Are you listening, dear nieces?)

So many good things to eat, but this was my favorite — a rhubarb square. This recipe has been on my blog before right *here.*

(This new editor drives me foolish. I have been trying to create this post for the better part of an hour and my brain and patience are scrambled. If I had a computer program that worked this poorly, it would be history. I'd smash it to smithereens with a hammer. Then I'd jump on what remained. There! I feel better now. )

Oh, it worked that time. Where was I? Oh yes, Jake enjoyed looking at all the flowers and so did I. Here's a nice batch of flower pics without comment.

(Forgive me for not being able to scoot in between pictures with my text.) And we played. We played roll down the hill (yes, I played that one), and we played tag (yup, me too), and we played hide n' seek (you betcha! my favorite spot was behind a big old oak tree), and we played golf (sure did, hit every golf ball, two). John was especially impressive and I didn't get one picture of him. Darn! Apparently, my sis and her hubby practice on "their private fairway" quite often. She is getting ready to tee off on the left while her daughter and mine watch.

Thank you for taking the garden tour through my sister's yard. Many of the pictures featured in yesterday's mosaic were of my sister's town as well.

I'm sure that lots of bloggers have their stories to share today after the holiday and I want to read them all!  Enjoy a wonderful Tuesday.