Just Call Me Twilight

Today is not an ordinary day.  Not for me.  Today I mourn the passing of a dear friend.  She has been my companion for the past 18 years and losing her today has caused a small hole to tear in my heart. Kluny came to us a sickly, scrawny but vocal kitten at just five-weeks old.  She was very ill and for a few weeks we were not sure this world would hold onto her.  When she pulled through, she truly became ours. As Handy Hubby and I's first adopted pet as a married couple, Kluny has seen us through many life changes.  She was there in our first house together, she was part of the building of our second home.  She saw us through sickness, through three pregnancies and two births.  She has loved us through strife and through moments of joy.  She has loved my children and taught them many lessons on how to properly treat their four-legged friends. As Youngest Daughter and I held her as she slipped away, I shed many...

When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life.  When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up.  I wrote down ‘happy’.  They told me I didn’t understand the assignment, and I told them they didn’t understand life.  –John Lennon

A week and a half ago, Oldest Daughter started the Second Grade.  As excited as I was for her and the new adventures waiting for her right around the corner, I will admit that I also harbored a bit of sadness.  Sadness that my firstborn was growing up before my eyes; sadness that there wasn't a darn thing I could do to stop it.   So today, my mixed bag of emotions greeted me with the alarm.  Youngest Daughter was starting Preschool.   As we started the Preschool countdown by marking off each day on the calendar, equal parts enthusiasm and dread settled in my heart.  Every passing day saw these two emotions growing just a tiny bit bigger .  But I knew this little girl has been ready to start school (so that she could be just like her big sister) for at least the past year.  For this reason alone, I swallowed the dread and decided to only be excited for her. As we marked off the days counting down to the start of Preschoo...

Today is St. Patrick's Day so I thought I would share some fun Irish music with you.  Whether you are Irish or not, it is hard to not enjoy this music.   Slán go foil .  JCMT The Rumjacks - "An Irish Pub Song"   The Irish Rovers "Johnny I Hardly Knew Ye"      The Bollox "Tura'lu"     Orthodox Celts - "Star of the County Down"      Dropkick Murphys - "Rose Tattoo"        The Dubliners "Whiskey in the Jar"      

I have learned to love my little people on a whole new level.  A level that can only be reached through promotion of fear.  A level that no parent strives to achieve. Oldest Daughter recently attended the birthday party of her closest friend.  I dropped her off at birthday girls house, giddy with anticipation.  At the conclusion of the party, birthday girl's mom would escort the birthday girl and four guests to a park across the street, where the parents knew to retrieve the girls at a particular time.  Sometime prior to birthday party pick-up time, my phone rings and I see that it is birthday mom calling.  Answering it, I am greeted with screaming in the background and birthday mom yelling my daughters name before the line goes dead.  I promptly call the number back, her phone sending the call straight to voicemail.  Over and over again I frantically call birthday mom's number, just to be...

When I was pregnant, never having been a mother before, I had expectations of what it would be like when my little one arrived.  These expectations were fed mostly by the media.  Commercials depicting pretty babies cooing at their mothers, giggling toddlers toddling about, cuteness when baby covers themselves in pureed food - you know, the normal happy scenes we should all expect as parents.  What I failed to notice were the fuzzy edges, the dead give-away that these social driven episodes were in no way rooted in reality. Don't get me wrong.  I, now a mother of two, have had plenty of pretty moments.  Every time I receive a hug or kiss from one of my girls, pride when Youngest Daughter tells anyone within hearing distance that she is mommy's little duckie, excitement from Oldest Daughter when I teach in her classroom, when either of the girls tell me they love me.  All precious moments that continue to ma...

My first New Music posting of 2015 finds me all over the place.  All in a good way people; all in a good way. My first song choice is by a group that I happen to love only because every song I hear from them leaves me feeling happy and refreshed, and this song is no exception.  It is a bit on the long side but definitely worth a listen.  A fitting start to the new year. Nahko and Medicine for the People - "Budding Trees"     alt-J is an up-and-coming group that I am hearing more and more on mainstream radio.  I have mixed feelings about this.  I love up-and-comers, always feel excited about their musical genius.  The downside to up-and-comers is when that musical genius becomes regular rotation fodder on mainstream radio, which just means that too many people are now being exposed to that genius.  Waters them down, diluting that genius (yes, I have just used the word 'genius' four time...

The ringing in of the new year means just one thing to me as a blogger - that it is time for me pick a new Word of the Year!! Last year's word - treasure - served me well all year.  I posted the word all around my house, and each time I saw it, I was reminded that no matter what life was sending me at that particular moment, I needed to treasure what meant the most to me.  And throughout the year, I consciously noted what those things were.  I treasure my family.  I am so proud to be allowed the pleasure of being mommy to two fantastic little girls.  They continue to, daily, teach me lessons that usually slap me across the face.  Or test my patience.  Or reinforce how I like to count to 5.  I am also proud of my continuing role as life partner to Handy Hubby.  Some days, that sentence would be almost impossible to write, but through every single up and down of our marriage, he is still the man I wan...

Happy 2015 everyone!!  It is so good to be back with y'all.  I have missed conversing with you as well as writing on this blog.  In my past month of silence, even though I did not write one single post, I had a few experiences that moved me in some way.  Those experiences made me want to share with you.  But instead, I shared with Handy Hubby and the majority of the time he just rolled his eyes at me.  Sometimes I deserve the eye-rolling (ok, most of the time), but other times I know my stories are bigger than that - I know that my stories need to go where they will be appreciated and understood by others of my kind.  And that kind is the person that can say "been there - done that!".  From the feedback I have been receiving over the past few months, you have told me that you love the stories and pictures of my families adventures.  I will continue to share them.  You have tol...