Category Archives: On the Home Front

Smiling Through Our Tears

Posted on March 13, 2012 | 25 comments

Good morning Everyone!

One of my favorite pictures of Tyra ever

Last week, Tyra went completely blind in about two days.  You may remember from earlier posts that she was already blind in one eye due to canine glaucoma.  Last week, the retina in her good eye detached.  The name for this is something like Sudden Retinal Detachment Syndrome, which just means that her retina detached and no-one knows why.

The effect, though, is obvious.  Our sweet, loving, smart, obedient Tyra cannot see.  At all.  And while she does not appear to be grieving or upset, rather instead focusing her energy on learning how to get around, the human contingent of our family is quite sad about it, even while we also work on what we need to do to help Tyra and the other two dogs adjust.

This picture, taken in January, shows you her "bad" eye on the right.

The purpose of this post, though, is not to make you sad, either, but to point out that even in sad times you can find things that, if not funny, at least make you smile.

A pastel I did of Tyra

For example, there was my casual observation that while I wouldn’t want this to happen to any of the dogs, at least it happened to the smartest one of the bunch who is able to figure out ways to cope.  If it had been Mandy, she would have spent all weekend in a standoff with a wall.  She doesn’t move for anything she collides with, but rather expects it to move for her.   Convincing her, with her combination basset hound/husky stubbornness  that she would ultimately have to yield for a wall, would be nigh impossible.

Mandy, studying the treadmill

One of the things we have to do is teach Tyra how to find her water bowl, since water is difficult to smell.  After she refused to drink even when we put plain water in a coffee cup in front of her, I suggested we at first give her a glass of sweet tea.  The sweet tea innovation was very popular.

All of the reading I have done about dog behavior and characteristics finally paid off, too, when I remembered that a dog’s sense of smell is a billion times (or something like that) more acute than ours, so we then took the next coffee cup of water and laced it with just a splash of sweet tea, which also was popular with the blind dog contingent of the household.

Tyra laughing at Callaway Gardens this winter.

It is also nice to finally have a use for all of the coffee cups that come with every set of china that we buy beyond those we reserve for visitors.  We don’t drink coffee, so they get very little use.

Mark had Tyra up on the couch beside him Sunday evening, and he was drinking sweet tea in a large class.  She could smell it and started trying to lick the side of the glass, clearly believing that she is now entitled to sweet tea, too.

Kayla and Tyra, 12 days after Kayla came to live with us

She found the water bowl by herself Sunday afternoon, and the whole family stood up and cheered. at least metaphorically.

The vet said that steps would be the one thing that she would have a hard time handling, and since the back yard is only accessible through a steep set of stairs down from the porch, we have been walking her on a leash in the front of the house.  She loves it.  The other two dogs were not happy the first time we took her out on a leash, leaving them inside (and folks, I am just not up to the crazed Hittite charioteer routine two or three times a day), but over the next couple of days they seem to have mellowed out about it.

There has been the pride Mark and I feel as parents in Kayla, who has been as sweet and loving to Tyra as anyone could wish.  The only problem is helping her understand that she can’t keep Tyra 100% safe; Tyra has to be allowed to explore her surroundings, which means she does bump into furniture once in a while, and the other dogs have to be allowed around her so they can adjust.  Kayla  also has been a great help with the other two dogs, giving them extra love and attention to help keep them from feeling left out.

Mandy and Darwin confer

Mandy and Darwin haven’t quite figured things out yet.  I think they know something has changed but they’re not sure what.    They do not harass Tyra in any way, although Darwin got a little confused when Tyra didn’t respond to his play bow Monday morning.  Dr. Mitchell said that one of them eventually will take over as sort of a guide dog for Tyra.  No sign of that so far, but then it is early days yet.

Blind or not, Tyra still expects (and gets) elevator service onto our bed at night.  The only difference is that she also gets lifted back down when it is time for her to get off.

Another favorite picture of Tyra

And then there is Tyra herself.  Dogs can mope just as humans can, but there has been no moping in Tyra.  We can’t explain to her what has happened, but she knows that she can’t see and rather than waste time feeling sorry for herself, she is, instead, working on learning what she needs to learn to carry on.  If she looked miserable or sad all the time, we would be hard pressed not to be ourselves, but she wanders around the house happily, then finds somewhere comfortable to lie down, and as soon as she hears our voices starts to thump that tail of hers.  She follows us when we lead her on the leash with absolute trust, and even got a couple of walks around the neighborhood this weekend which she really enjoyed.   We still see her laugh quite a bit.

It is these small blessings that make adjusting to this new phase for all of us  possible, and we are grateful for them.

Have a great day everyone!

Nancy

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Six Words and The-House-Formerly-Known-As-Clean

Posted on March 7, 2012 | 4 comments

Good morning Everyone!

We’ve made it to Wednesday (or at least those of us on my side of the International Date Line have made it to Wednesday; some of you lucky souls out there have already made it to Thursday!), but I’m having one of those weeks when it feels like it should be Friday. It will be kind of depressing when I go into work tomorrow feeling that it is Saturday. That Friday feeling is not helped by the fact that I have today off from work, with intentions of completing several errands and chores, which will push me even further forward, giving me the impression today is Saturday.

I'm so confused!

When I first scheduled today off, I was planning on at least getting the chance to sleep in, but that plan was scotched by 6:40 a.m. Monday, when Kayla started with the words, “Mom, I forgot to tell you…..” Any parent knows two things about those six words: 1) Your blood pressure begins to rise immediately upon them being uttered and 2) They never are followed with things like “my science teacher gave me a 100 on my test and says I could be a physicist some day.” The words “Mom, I forgot to tell you…” are used by children at convenient times of day or night such as 7:00 p.m. the day before a major project is due, or, as in this case, at 6:40 a.m., 10 minutes after she should have already left for school, when the announcement was “I have traffic duty this week, which means I have to be at school by 7:10, so I will have to be a car rider this week.” (“Car rider” is the local elementary school term for children who do not ride a bus or a day care van, but whose parents drive them to school and pick them up from school. In the elementary school world, “car riders” seem to have an elevated status over bus riders and day care riders.) That was doable, but due to the mechanics of when Mark needs to be at work, that meant that I would be dropping her off at school all this week. Hence, the sleeping in this morning, on my day off, was wiped out, for the most part.

What I did NOT get to do this morning!

What little hope of sleeping in at least another 15 or 20 minutes that I had were wiped out by Bad Dog (Mandy) who insisted that I needed to get up and feed her. She kept jumping up on the bed and licking and pawing me to get my attention. She was unable to jump on my hair, because I recently got it cut very short, but she tried every other trick in her arsenal. About the 8th time, I gave up trying to kick her off the bed and get her to leave me alone, and got up. At least she was happy! Darwin and Tyra seemed to appreciate her efforts on their behalf, also.  All three dogs, now, having been fed and let out, are comfortably asleep in their location of choice, but I am not too very bitter!

One sleeping spot, preferred on warmer days.

For the rest of it, I have a full day. One of my tasks is to pick up the-house-formerly-known-as-clean in preparation for my father stopping by this evening on his way through from Florida to Illinois. (Let me hasten to add here that the only homo sapien in our house NOT responsible for its current disheveled state is Mark; it’s Kayla and I that manage to leave little trails of stuff throughout the house, kind of like bread crumbs to help us find our way home.) I also, as part of that same process, have to convert the craft room back to the guest bedroom. That won’t be too bad, although I have since Christmas been a little lax about storing craft materials back up. I don’t think it would be wise to open any closets in my house for a couple of days, though, once I’m finished.

If I finish all that on time, maybe I can sneak in a little nap – but just in case, I intend to consume large quantities of caffeine throughout the day!

Lots of caffeine!

Have a great day everyone!

Nancy

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A Touch of Spring

Posted on February 20, 2012 | 5 comments

Good morning Everyone!

Today we are going to switch gears just a little bit, and take a moment to share some of the early signs of a Southern spring.

A patch of daffodils, also called jonquils, in full bloom

These pictures are extraordinary, not just because of the beauty of the flowering plants involved, but also because I took them the first week in February!

Tulip Tree in full bloom in central Alabama the first week of February - extraordinary!

Normally, the yellow bells and daffodils start their show towards the end of February in the third or fourth week, and the tulip trees in late February/early March, but not this year!

Yellow Bell (aka fuchsia) Bush

It is easy to miss the beauty of the yellow bells, and very hard to capture it on camera, but this close-up may help:

Camellias are a bit different; each bush seems to bloom on its own schedule.  The small camellia bush by our front door likes to bloom in December, but these pictures are from a bush in our town square that has decided to put on a bit of a show this year.

Camellia bush in full bloom

The camellia is the state flower of Alabama, and here you might be able to see why.

Camellia in full bloom

I think it would be fun to sketch that bloom in watercolor pencil, one medium I haven’t tried yet.

Here are some buds in various stages of bloom.

Camellia buds

The problem, of course, with blooming this early is that a frost is almost certain to occur sometime in February and early March, if not later, and this year was no exception – a week after I took these pictures, we had a night where the temperatures got down into the 20’s.

One last look at the tulip tree before the frost took care of the flowers

That finished off every tulip tree that was blooming, but the daffodils/jonquils survived, as did the yellow bells (also called fuchsia.)  Yellow bells are amazingly cold-resistant; I have seen the blossoms survive and flourish after experiencing temperatures down into the low 20’s.

A branch from the amazingly cold-hardy yellow bell bush

I heard another sign of spring this weekend – somewhere in the woods, one of the woodpeckers was back and active.  The “tat-tat-tat-tat-tat” sound of a woodpecker pecking is pretty unmistakable, even with the other birds’ songs thrown in.  I learned the rhythm involved last year, when we had a pretty, but very confused, woodpecker who sat on top of the street-light across from our house and kept trying to peck into its top.  It was a persistent bird; he or she kept at it for about three days before going to search for more malleable wood.  I like to think that it was that same bird, older and wiser now, that I heard Saturday.

Have a great day!

Nancy

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Too much alike!

Posted on January 5, 2012 | 4 comments

Hi Everyone!

I have a bone to pick with the Coca-Cola company today.

It was really cold yesterday morning, and I was sleepy, so stumbling out into the garage to obtain my diet coke for my caffeine starter for the day was more of a shock than usual.  I grabbed two cans off of the refrigerator shelf – we have an extra refrigerator in the garage we use for storing drinks and other stuff – with my eyes half-open, stumbled back into the house and got ready to drink my drink, when I discovered that the winter design for the Coca-Cola can was too similar to the Diet Coke can.  I know this, because I had grabbed one of each. 

Here is a picture of the “normal” Coke can: 

And here is a picture of a Diet Coke can with the winter Coca-Cola can:

That is just too much alike for people who are sleepy in the morning!  Even half-asleep, I can tell the difference between the silver Diet Coke can and the bright red Coke can, but the silver and the white, not so much.  I am hereby pleading with Coke to revert to the original red can.  Does anyone think they will listen?

I hope so; we have a whole shelf in the refrigerator full of white Coke cans.  I can’t decide if that was by design, or if someone else in my family also thought that the white cans were diet coke cans and not regular Coke.

Have a great day !

Nancy

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The Trashman Cometh and other Post-Christmas Joys!

Posted on December 28, 2011 | 10 comments

Good morning Everyone!

I took a mini-vacation from this blog (three days – Friday, Monday and Tuesday) but it seems like forever since I last was here.  I’m glad to be back with all of you!

Not that kind of vacation - I would still be there!

Yesterday morning, December 27th, brought great joy to our household.  Was it due to Christmas?  No, we had that celebration Sunday.  Was it because it was my birthday?  No, but it was my birthday and we did celebrate it.  Was it because Kayla decided to spontaneously clean her room and throw out all of her junk and put all of the good stuff back neatly just for the fun of it?  Wrong again – I think that would fall under the classification of miracle.

No, the event that brought such joy was the arrival of the post-Christmas trash pickup.  Christmas was, as you know, on Sunday, and Mark spent Monday cleaning out the garage, so by the time trash pickup day got here, our dumpster had floweth over and there were four good size boxes full of trash beside it.  However, just like Santa or the tooth fairy (although with just a bit more noise – the dogs sometimes hear the truck and bark), sometime early in the morning the trashmen came and emptied our dumpster and relieved us of our trash.

This may seem a rather mundane thing to celebrate, but we no longer take trash collection over the holiday season for granted – the first and second years we were in this house, we went without trash collection for two weeks between Christmas and New Years!  Kayla was five and six at the time, and we had even more Christmas left-overs than we have now, so we were in dire straits.  I was considering wandering the streets of our town asking complete strangers at Wal-Mart “Brother, can you spare a trashcan?”  By the time the garbage truck toodled its way down our street that third week, we literally chased it down, and talked to the driver and assistant as fast as we could to keep them there while we deposited trash bags into the truck at rapid speed.  They had originally intended just to empty our dumpster and move on!

That was, however, a different waste disposal company and a different time (our neighborhood was relatively new and we were one of only two houses in it, so I think the replacement/holiday driver just didn’t know we were here), but ever since then we are quite grateful when our trash gets picked up Christmas week!

Mandy

Monday afternoon late, Kayla was outside playing on the porch and the dogs were in the back yard for a while.  Suddenly Kayla opened the door to announce that Mandy, sometimes known as “Bad Dog”, had spent some time rolling in…well, the polite term would be, I think, biological waste products, probably her own.  I was writing at the time, so I told Kayla to wipe it off of Mandy with some paper towels.  I saw Kayla walk out with some paper towels, and then she came back in to say it wasn’t working very well.  I absent-mindedly mumbled that perhaps she should use more water (I had a 14,000 word article on depression I was trying to finish for a client) and didn’t really notice the grim-faced ten year old hauling the long but short white dog across the den into the bathroom.  I did hear the water start running, but since I had also suggested at some point that it would be a good idea for Kayla to take a bath, I thought that was what was happening.

Boy was I wrong!  About fifteen minutes later, the door opened and a clean, wet but not drenched Mandy came tearing out of the bathroom.  When Mark and I asked what happened, Kayla told us that she had given Mandy a shower!  She was very proud of herself for doing so, too.  (In her defense, the house rule is “Do not drag the dog into the bathtub with you because you want a friend to take a bath with.”  Since she was forcing a dog into the bathtub to clean her, I guess she didn’t technically break the rule.)  She said that she had to pop Mandy once on the rear to get her to finish going into the tub, but once she did, Mandy sat down in the bathtub and took her shower with good grace.  Kayla used Dove to clean her off, which I’m pretty sure is not a dog registered product but hopefully just one time won’t do Mandy’s coat any harm.  Kayla even cleaned the tub and shower out afterwards without being told.  Mandy has viewed Kayla with a new respect since then!

Pardon me; I just had to take a break for a minute to retrieve a ball of black yarn from Darwin, which he was tossing around trying to unstring, which brings me to another post-holiday joy – saving Darwin from the batteries.

Darwin

Darwin, also known by the alias “No-No”, loves things that roll that he can chase around the house at will.  Unbeknownst to any of us, he decided to pluck a package of AAA batteries off of the coffee table.  Since the package was open already, 8 triple AAA batteries went rolling off in many directions, and Darwin was in puppy Nirvana.  I did look up once to see him pawing at something under the couch, but, silly me, I thought it was one of his balls or other toys that roll that he was playing with.  It wasn’t until I heard unusual chewing sounds that I went around the corner to discover Darwin happily munching on a AAA battery.  While I have discovered that there are many things that dogs can eat, such as a complete tube of Neosporin, and not suffer any harm, I am pretty sure that AAA batteries are not one of them.  Kayla and I had a fun adventure tracking down all 8 of the batteries to be sure that he hadn’t punctured or ingested any of them.  We found two with teeth marks on them at various places in the house, but fortunately he hadn’t broken the casing, and then found the other six under different objects – one under the love seat, two under the ottoman, one under the coach and two that had rolled underneath dog beds.  We heaved a sigh of relief after we found the last one.  Darwin thought the group participation aspect of the battery play was the best part!

Well, I think I have written more than enough to make up for the three days I missed, so I better stop before I have written the equivalent of a full length novel!  I hope each of you had a very Merry Christmas and post-Christmas adventures at least as exciting as mine!

Have a great day!

Nancy

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On Cupboard Doors and Closet Shelves

Posted on December 21, 2011 | 9 comments

De’ Nile ain’t just a river in Egypt.    – Mark Twain

Good morning Everyone!

Today is my day to make confessions regarding cupboard doors and closet shelves.  I never really noticed that I have a habit of leaving cupboard doors open after I pull something out of them, until I overheard a visiting family member mutter to themselves a few months ago something about “doesn’t anyone in this house shut cupboard doors?”  I didn’t think much about it – I certainly didn’t leave cupboard doors open, after all – and then Mark, after a close encounter with one of the open cupboard doors said something else about it.  I made the natural assumption, as any parent would, that Kayla must have opened the cupboard doors and forgot to close them, so kindly reminded her to close the cupboard doors after she opened them.  After all, I certainly don’t open cupboard doors and forget to close them.  Then one day about two weeks ago while I was blogging, and I was the only one home, I looked over to my left from the table where I do most of my writing,  and saw this:

And this:

In legal terms, I think that counts as a smoking gun, and ever since that day two weeks ago have tried to do better.

I also try hard to put things back correctly in the cupboards and pantry, but in spite of my best efforts, sometimes I slip up.  I know this when I hear Mark open a cupboard door or the pantry while I am in another room, hear the soft thud of something falling out – usually on his head – and then the sounds of something akin to “Behold!  Yet another Tupperware container hath fallen on my head!”  The practical part of my brain realizes somewhere deep down that balancing a bag of flour on a can of soup, and then topping both of them off with a bag of bread or a box of Mac ‘n Cheese is probably not the ideal arrangement for stability, but the other part of me looks at the pantry and can’t figure out any other way to make everything fit.

And the Tupperware shelf!  Given the various size and shapes of plastic ware available, I am convinced that the people who design plastic ware expect the people using it to have mechanical engineering degrees to get it all to fit correctly.  I can match round to round and square to square pretty well, but then you run into oval, oblong, rectangular and super size and any chance of a decent storage system is gone!  I try (again) to keep things balanced safely, but every once in a while it seems impossible that it all will fit in correctly, so then I try to mush the unmushable bowl, and the gentle thud will happen soon after.  Sigh.

I’m working on it though; at the rate I’m currently going, I should have both the cupboard door problem and the Tupperware organization thing fixed by the time I’m 90 – or I may just borrow my friend Emily’s 11-year-old daughter, who likes to organize kitchens on a regular basis.  I’m not sure which!

Finally, here are some completely unrelated observations Kayla made this past week.

1) To Mandy:  Mandy, stop chasing your tail!  You won’t like it when you catch it.

2) To Me:

Kayla:  Mom, I’ve finally figured out what “Accio” is.   (This is a Harry Potter reference.)

Mom, originally:  Oh?

Kayla:  It lets you call things to you.

Mom:  Yes, like keys and cell phones.

Kayla:  I can see where that would be really useful, particular for you.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Nancy

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The Twelve Days Pre-Christmas

Posted on December 7, 2011 | 19 comments

THE TWELVE DAYS PRE-CHRISTMAS

(To the tune of “The Twelve Days of Christmas,” with apologies to Mark, who hates that song!)

I.

On the first day pre-Christmas, my true love said to me:  “We need to go shopping promptly.” 
 

II.

On the second day pre-Christmas, my true love said to me, “Need to put the tree up.”
–  But we need to go shopping promptly.
 

III.

On the third day pre-Christmas, my true love said to me, “Let’s have a party!”
 (But we need to put the tree up
And we need to go shopping promptly.)
 

IV.

 On the fourth day pre-Christmas, my child said to me, “I need some presents! You’ll have a party.  Why isn’t the tree up?” and “You need to go shopping promptly!”
 

V.

On the fifth day pre-Christmas, my wondering eyes did see – A SALE AT MACY’S! 
My child  still needs presents,
The party’s Friday,
The tree still is not up
And I need to go shopping promptly!
 

VI.

On the sixth day pre-Christmas, my bad self said to me, “Eat a chocolate Santa!”
– There’s A SALE AT MACY’S!
My child still needs presents,
The party’s Friday,
The tree is still not up
And I need to go shopping promptly.
 

VII.

On the seventh day pre-Christmas, my conscience said to me, “No more chocolate Santas!”
(I don’t care, I found one!) 
There’s a SALE AT MACY’S!
My child still needs presents,
The party’s Friday,
The tree is halfway up
And I need to go shopping promptly.
 

VIII.

On the eighth day pre-Christmas, the school note said to me “20 cupcakes in two days now! ” 
No more chocolate Santas!
(How about a Reese’s?),
There’s a SALE AT MACY’S!
Child’s gifts now hidden,
The party’s soon,
The tree just got knocked down
And I need to go shopping promptly.
 

IX.

On the ninth day pre-Christmas my true love said to me, “Aren’t you a little stressed dear?”
20 cupcakes by tomorrow,
NO MORE CHOCOLATE SANTAS!
(I don’t care, I’ll have one),
There’s a SALE AT MACY’S! 
Child’s not found her gifts,
Party’s almost here,
The tree is standing up
And I need to go shopping promptly.
 

X.

On the tenth day pre-Christmas, my oven said to me, “Why haven’t you bought the turkey?”
I’m a little stressed now,
20 cupcakes by this evening,
(Shut up about the Santas! – I’m going to have two more now)
There’s a SALE AT MACY’S! 
Child’s gifts still in hiding,
The party’s now,
The tree is not yet lit
And I need to go shopping promptly.
 

XI.

On the eleventh day pre-Christmas, my true love said to me, “What about the dressing?”
Where did I put the turkey? 
I’m getting truly stressed now,
20 cupcakes from the grocers,
NO MORE CHOCOLATE SANTAS!  (I can’t hear you Conscience)
There’s a SALE AT MACY’s! 
Child’s gifts locked up tight now,
The party’s done,
The tree just blew a fuse
And I need to go shopping promptly!
 

XII.

On the day that Christmas got here, I woke up and did see –
A banquet for my family,
Turkey and Dressing,
Even giblet gravy,
Stress has gone away now,
Stockings filled with care
(But no chocolate Santas)
NO SALE AT MACY’S!
Child loves her gifts,
No more parties now,
Tree is A-OK,
And I’m going to nap until New Years!

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The United States National Holiday of Thanksgiving

Posted on November 24, 2011 | 8 comments

Good morning everyone!

I hope those of you who are here with me in the United States, or are overseas either with our armed forces or as an expatriate celebrating Thanksgiving have a wonderful day today!  Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays; it is time to take a breath before I get swept away for the Christmas season, relax with my family and most importantly thank God for the many, many blessings in my life. 

The First Thanksgiving, the Way I "Remember" It

Because it is one of my favorite holidays, I looked up more about the history of Thanksgiving which means, of course, that I am compelled to share this knowledge with you.  No, not the history of the first Thanksgiving; I love that story too much to clutter it with inconvenient historical facts (although I know my share of them).  I prefer to leave my mental image of the grateful Pilgrims with the helpful Indians intact, but will move instead to how Thanksgiving came to be the beloved national holiday that it is today.

George Washington's Thanksgiving Proclamation of 1789

During the Revolutionary War, the Continental Congress declared one or more national days of official Thanksgiving, as did George Washington, John Adams and James Madison.  This was not done on a regular basis nationally, and in 1817,  New York became the first state to adopt an official day for  a yearly Thanksgiving holiday.  Several other states followed suit, but each state selected a different day.  In 1827, Sarah Josepha Hale, who was the editor of first The Ladies Journal and then Godey’s Ladies’ Book until the age of almost 90 (she retired in 1877) and who was the author of “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” began campaigning to make Thanksgiving a national holiday. 

Sarah Josepha Hale

After 36 years of hard campaigning, which included editorials and dozens of letters to governors, presidents, congressmen and senators, her goal was achieved when in 1863 Abraham Lincoln designated the last Thursday in November as the national holiday of Thanksgiving.  In his proclamation, which was made in the second year of the American Civil War, Abraham Lincoln asked Americans to ask God to “commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife” and to “heal the wounds of the nation.”

Dallas Cowboys Helmet

The first Thanksgiving Day parade was held in Philadelphia in 1920; the Macy’s Day Thanksgiving Day Parade began in 1924 along with America’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in Detroit.  In 1934, the Detroit Lions hosted the first of their annual Thanksgiving day games, a tradition that continues even today.  The only years since then that the Detroit Lions haven’t played a Thanksgiving game were in 1939 through 1944 during World War II. 

Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1941

Thanksgiving continued to be held every year on the last Thursday of November until 1939, when Franklin D. Roosevelt, in the middle of the Depression, attempted to move it up to the third Thursday in November in an effort to increase holiday retail sales.  This change was incredibly unpopular (some critics called it “Franksgiving”) and in 1941 he reluctantly signed a bill from Congress establishing Thanksgiving as occurring on the fourth Thursday of November, where it remains today.  The Dallas Cowboys began their annual Thanksgiving Day game in 1966.  Then, in 2006, the NFL added a third game to the schedule, completing the slate of Thanksgiving Day football games as we know it today.

Home to Thanksgiving, A Currier and Ives Print

In addition to the national history of the United States’ Thanksgiving holiday, each family has their own traditions as well.  In recent years, Mark’s, Kayla’s and mine has been to go somewhere, just the three of us, either the weekend before or the weekend of Thanksgiving.  If we can, Kayla and I watch the Macy’s Day Thanksgiving Parade together, while I know at the same time my Mom and sisters are probably doing the same wherever they are.  What are some of your family traditions? 

Thanksgiving Turkey

Have a very happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Nancy

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Not Again! (a/k/a Time Change)

Posted on November 4, 2011 | 10 comments

Good morning Everyone!

As I am sitting here writing, listening to Tyra bark softly outside because she is ready to come back in, I am looking outside and noticing that it has gotten to where it is dark in the morning now for quite a while after we get up.  From the fall equinox until the start of winter in December, here in Alabama we lose about one to three minutes of sunlight a day, which doesn’t seem like much, but slowly adds up.  Fortunately, we still have some vestiges of light once I start home from work, which I do enjoy.  That’s all about to change.

Daylight Savings Time ends this weekend, which  means that here in the United States most of us will be moving our clocks back one hour.  This is annoying, because for at least a week I will be looking at clocks calculating  “If it is one p.m. now, last week it would have been 2:00 p.m.”  (I never said I was a particularly deep thinker!)

Daylight Savings Time is one of those really stupid strange inventions I don’t understand.  I know the reason Congress started it (in World War II, no less) was to help save energy, but has anyone really done a study to see how much energy it saves?  It seems that the energy we save by lopping off one hour in the spring should be equalled by the energy we use when we add that hour back in the fall.  I think it was Dave Barry who said something like “Try as you will, you can come up with no logical explanation for Daylight Savings Time.”  My favorite description of it, and I’m not sure whether it was by Will Rogers or O. Henry or someone else, is the comparison of it between a blanket where someone cuts off one foot from the bottom of the blanket to add one foot to the top so it will cover their head!  I really think we should just do away with it – I don’t really care whether we keep summer hours or winter hours, I just wish we’d stick with one or the other.

One of the most amusing things to do on the spring end of Daylight Savings Time is to park outside the day care of your choice and watch the kids as they enter on the first Monday after it begins.  The kids don’t care what the adults told them, they know that something about the time is not right, and it is a sleepy passel of young ‘uns that pass through the day care portals on that day.  (I suspect the adults are sleepy too; we’re just better at hiding it! )

I do like getting the one extra hour back this weekend, although each year it seems like the extra hour slides by without any special recognition.  That’s probably because I spend it sleeping, one way or another.

I am grateful to the person who invented the memory aid “Spring forward, Fall back.”  Without it, I wouldn’t ever remember which way to turn – uh, the clock, I mean!

Have a great weekend folks!

Nancy

P.S.  For a while, Indiana and Arizona (I think) refused to recognize Daylight Savings Time.  Does anyone know if they still do, or if there are any other states/regions out there that have decided to march to the beat of a different drummer?  Kudos to them, whoever they are!

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The Many Dilemmas of Candy Season

Posted on November 2, 2011 | 10 comments

Good morning Everyone!

Halloween marks the official start of  “Candy Season.”  Candy Season runs from October 31 (Halloween) until Easter Sunday every year, and I have a love/hate relationship with it.

Granted, I like candy (at least chocolate candy) as much as the next person, but for the five or six months between Halloween and Easter  we are inundated with it.  It seems to be a required part of almost every celebration during the next five or six months – except for Thanksgiving, but even then, pie or cake of some kind is required.

Certain ethical questions impose themselves upon the arrival of Candy Season – is it really evil to go through your child’s Halloween candy and pick out all of the Three Musketeers and Hershey bars and eat them before she can?  Surely it can’t be that bad!  Besides, what else would I do with the extra hour between her bedtime and mine?  Does Kayla really need the entire chocolate Santa that appeared in her stocking or chocolate bunny that appeared in her Easter basket?  Aren’t I really doing her a favor, saving her all those extra calories and at least one sugar rush if I go ahead and eat at least part of it?

There is an internal struggle to Candy Season as well.  This conversation occurs more often than I would care to admit.

Sweet Tooth Self:  Did you know there is candy in the house?

Healthy Self:  You don’t need candy.  Have an apple.

Sweet Tooth Self:  Did you know there is candy in the house?

Healthy Self:  Well, it’s not chocolate; you know you don’t like any of those other kinds of candy.  Have an apple.

Sweet Tooth Self:  There is to chocolate.  I buried it in the bottom of the candy jar so Kayla and Mark wouldn’t find it.

Healthy Self:  That was last month, and you have pretty well demolished all of that chocolate you put back.  Besides, they’re getting suspicious – it’s hard for them to miss the fact that they haven’t been able to find any chocolate since before Halloween.  Have an apple.

Sweet Tooth Self:  I’ll show you!  (Proceeds to candy dish).  See, I told you there was a mini-Snickers bar left in there!

Healthy Self:  Show off!  Have an apple.

Sweet Tooth Self:  But that’s a mini-Snickers bar!

Healthy Self:  Well, we are supposed to have nuts as part of a healthy diet….

Sweet Tooth Self:  I told you!

Healthy Self:  Eat it quickly.  Then we’ll give Kayla the apple.  We want to keep her  healthy, after all!

Have a great day everyone!

Nancy

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Posted in On the Home Front, working mom

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