This visit from Emma and Eliza has been so wonderful. Every morning we were up at 7:38, driving through Donut Bank for crullers and cookies (and a chocolate-covered long john for PawPaw), a tradition founded several years back. They tanned in the pool when the UVs were right. We traipsed out to the mall, ate lunch at my go-to restaurant, Bru Burger, and saw ToyStory5 (I cried).
The Forever sign was finally decorated, and the NYers restored the Grateful sign.
We went to the races and thanks to Eliza’s clever bets, nearly broke even!
Yes, Jojo requires manual labor from her grandies…They’ve been shucking corn since they were big enough to shuck corn (and snap beans, too).
Our visitors included my friend, the girls’ Aunt Dee, my niece, Lauren; my cousins Lori, Haley, and baby Saylor Reese, and everybody seemed to have a great time watching Emma dance. Thanks, y’all!
We recreated the pictures from the past — We’ve been taking these swing pictures, and arm pictures for about 10 years! I’ll have to put them all together for you some time.
To top off a Great Visit, PawPaw got a campfire going and we made s’mores…
I guess I’m about as Grateful as a Human can Be.
Also exhausted…
Hope you’re resting well in your neck of the woods!
It’s been a great week with my NewYork girls! Today we’ll be entertaining Aunties and Cousins, taking final group pictures on the swing, and fixing our Forever sign, so it will be just a blink before we find ourselves hugging these sweeties good-bye on Sunday.
You could guess that I talk about our ancestry with the grands whenever I can, so Emma and Eliza were held hostage the other night as I read to them about my grandparents, Verla Ruth and Robert A. Mayne. It was almost spooky when I read that they had married on August 8, 1926–100 years ago today.
Writing their story was some of the most engrossing research I have ever done. My grandfather was the Big Mayne Family Secret, not to be spoken of. My grandmother lived to be 90 and I knew her well, but she did not want to talk about it. My Dad finally spoke of him when he was dying.
It’s a Tragic Story, this one, and I thought you might like to read it. It was published on my family genealogy blog, All My Ancestors, in 2022.
While we were traveling toward Ohio to pick up the New York Girls, my post “Reading and Writing on the World Wide Web” was featured on Freshly Pressed. I am thrilled, but inundated by Likes and Comments – more in 48 hours than I’ve received in 20+ years of blogging! Thank-you, Thank-you, Thank-you!
I am excited to visit all of your blogs, but right now my girls are with me….
So I might be slow reciprocating your kindness, but I’m looking forward to getting to know you!
I’ll be sharing the upcoming week’s events with you as we go, so I’m glad you’ve joined us!
The gardens are keeping us busy here at the Acres.
I guess I won’t be starting a separate blog for the gardens. The days are just flying by, filled with graduations, recitals, healthcare visits, and actual Work in the Gardens, so I’ll just have to share its progress here. One never knows, but at this juncture it’s shaping up to be one of my best efforts.
Yesterday morning Samantha and I rolled out early for the Willard Library Book Sale. That afternoon the whole fam came together for Nova’s singing recital.
It is our annual tradition to see how long we can put off turning on our air conditioning. We do this partly because we are cheap and don’t want a big utility bill, but I think it’s an old-person thing…I like to tell our kids and grandkids about how we didn’t have air conditioning back in our day, how we toughed it out sitting in front of fans that could cut our hands off if we reached into the cage, and slept on the basement floor (the best coolant) on a pallet to survive. Maybe you had a/c in your home, but my dad truly believed he caught colds from window units, so it was 1967 when we finally moved to a home with central air. Anyway, the humidity is horrible and I am a heavy sweat-er, but I consider it training for our upcoming visit to Disney World in Florida.
Yes, we’re headed back to Disney, specifically to ride the newly-updated Buzz Lightyear Space Command in Magic Kingdom and the revamped Rockin’ Rollercoast, now featuring the Muppets over at Hollywood Studios. The Great Thunder Mountain Railway is another “new” coaster over at MK; it used to be like the old wooden rollercoasters, but they’ve put in all new track to make it smoother. At Epcot, they switched the Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure from 3D to 2D, so I’d like to check that out, and the Carousel of Progress is going to shut down in a month to upgrade, so I need to refresh my memory of the current one.
Recently I’ve been asked by a couple of folks if I still ride the rides. We have ridden every ride there and there are some I won’t ride again (I’m looking at you, Tower of Terror), but most of them I’m up for. This trip we’ll only be there for three days, so we’ve prioritized the aforementioned rides and have plans to crawl through some resort lounges, eat some good food, and drink fancy drinks. We have Lightning Lane passes for Our favorite-of-all-time-ride, Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, to wrap up our trip on Wednesday. Despite the oppressive weather this time of year, we will be having a great time – I know where the air conditioning is!
I’m still coughing, dammit, so started a round of steroids to see if we can get this thing under control.
I hope you’re enjoying these last weeks of weeks of Spring in your neck of the woods.
It’s been a busy week here at Sonnystone Acres. We attended graduation ceremony #2 for our #2 grandie on Thursday. This is from Early College, a group of around 30 students who earned Associate and Technical Degrees from Ivy Tech. Nova gave a wonderful speech, mostly about Speech, thanking her Mom and causing some leakage from my tear ducts. Her final commencement will be this Friday as part of the Central High School Class of 2026. I will sit that one out, but I sure am proud of her.
8th grad graduation, 1st day of kindergarten
My Number Four Grandie will have her Big Day this Friday morning as she graduates Fifth Grade and leaves Elementary for Middle School. She, too, will be speaking at the ceremony and I already have a lump in my throat. She is my baby and I am dizzy with how fast this time has gone. She was here today and we’re planning a return to piano lessons this summer, and weekly get-togethers. I cherish every second I get to spend with her.
Samantha, 2019Samantha, 2026
The Garden is all in and we are sleeping that tired sleep, waking up to the dawn chorus and getting back to it. When all of these graduations and dance recitals – did I mention dance next week, too? – are past, I’ll show you the garden Up Close with my new 50mm lens.
I hope you’re sleeping well in your neck of the woods!
I hope you have enjoyed your day as much as I have! The Edible Garden is nearly all planted! We have planted 6 cucumber plants, 8 cantaloupe, 4 butternut squash, 6 zucchini, 6 yellow squash, 2 pineapple sage, 2 bee balm, 6 basil, 1 lemon verbena, 2 chive, 6 tomatoes, and 3 blanket flower. I’m waiting a bit longer to put in my bell peppers, and I have yet to buy my green beans. I have marigolds and nasturtium ready to be tucked in here and there.
I can’t think of a better way to celebrate Mothers’ Day than in the garden, mothering the earth. Both of the progeny called to chat. Melissa sent me a 50mm lens for my Nikon and I’m going to start a new photography project soon. I’m dirty and tired and the day has been gorgeous.
Here’s a bit of mushy Mothers’ Day message from 2020…
I read an article the other day: 10 Unforgettable Literary Moms. I came away with one quote that resonated my heart.
It’s a quote from Toni Morrisson’s deeply haunting book “Beloved”. I confess, I didn’t get very far into the book before I set it down. It was a glimpse into a world that is so disturbing and painful that it caused me pain, too. I’ve always said I’ll get back to it when the Time is right because there is something to learn about suffering from it. At any rate, here’s the quote from Sethe, whose tragic past has complicated her relationship with her daughter, 18-year-old Denver. Despite all of Sethe’s problems, she is a Mother.
Grown don’t mean a thing to a mother. A child is a child. They get bigger, older, but grown? What’s that supposed to mean? In my heart, it don’t mean a thing.
She’s not talking about “raising” a child here. She’s talking about the ineffeable feeling of Being a Mother. There are no words, though I’ve just spent an hour trying to write some. It is Mystical Spiritual Love that is instinctively protective and nurturing. It doesn’t change just because your children reach a certain age.
It’s not about the Love you receive from your children. It’s not about what a Good Mother you are or aren’t. It’s about that Spirit that enters you when you give birth, committing you to a Lifetime of Support to your creation.
I know that some mothers don’t feel it and I’m sad for them and their children. Most of us, though, have been Blessed by that Love. Now that my kids are parents, they, too, know that Ever-Present Love and Caring for their kids.
It doesn’t change, no matter how much anger or sadness has found its way into your lives. It is Forever and Always.
It isn’t easy, this mothering thing. We try our best to keep sight of that inexpressible Love when times are trying, but ain’t nobody perfect. The Perfect Mother is one who has done her Best…and that’s all of us…and that’s Good Enough.
They are still my children, my babies. In my heart, they never are Grown, but I sure do respect them as Adults. They are Good People. I love being their Mom and am so grateful. (I really like those grandkids, too, but that’s yet another Indescribable Love!)
Okay, I lied again about those extra posts. When the daughter is around, there’s not a lot of down-time.
Yes, we did bet Golden Tempo, the longshot winner of the KY Derby!!! What’s even better is that we had a party of 10 to cheer the ponies on. It really was a Great Race–first woman trainer to win the roses, two brothers who came in neck-and-neck in first and second place, and the first in a while of fast track vs. muddy in Lousville.
In what seems to be my normal behavior lately, I have no pictures of yesterday. The Jr girls were in attendance and their mom took graduation pictures of them on the grounds, so you’d think it would have dawned on me to mark the occasion digitally. But, alas, you’ll just have to take my word for it – we are all gorgeous.
It has been a blast and today will wrap up with a visit from Aunt Dee and a visit to Aunt Donna. Tomorrow morning at 6am, she’ll be on the plane back to NYC.
Casey’s doing even better, kind of showing off for his daughter, I think. We see his surgeon again this Friday and I bet he can go back to driving. >sigh of relief<
Next week is Mothers’ Day, time to put out the garden. We’ve got one more week of low 40s temps, so that works out perfectly. I’ll see you then.
Hope you’re surrounded by Love in your neck of the woods.
There’s nothing like a trip to Rural King to get you in the Spring planting mood. Monday morning I bought an excessive amount of seeds for both early starts and my countertop garden, and grabbed up a houseplant.
Casey got his pressure washer delivered and my back porch has been transformed.
Check out my new raised beds. He’s tilling them today and we’ll get a load of soil next week.
I spent a lot of last week following up on what I’d spent the week before thinking/stewing about. In the last decade, we’ve all seen families torn apart by politics/religion, and one of them was my birth family. You know, if you’ve been paying attention, that after the last election I turned it off, changed my habit of living in the internet world of “news”, but one can hardly avoid the fact that he’s started a war. I don’t know if that’s why, or is it something else, but many americans are beginning to see him in a different light.
So it was that a couple of the estranged-ers reached out to me (after 10 years!), a little embarrassed and even ashamed, kind of like they woke up… I have grieved losing these dearly-loved people, and once I was sure that they were sincere, my family and I opened our circle. We stepped back and made room for more Love. We are Family and we’ll do whatever it takes to hold each other up, to help us get through.
I hope we’ve reached a tipping point somehow and more and more of us come together to repair what has been so tragically broken in our country and in our hearts.
Looking ahead…
We’re expecting a hard freeze Monday and Tuesday, so we’re preparing some covers for our roses. We’ve lost the first buds for the last two years! But my lovely forsythia have got their blooming done…
I don’t care if the Irish like it or not, I’m having corned beef, cabbage, and potatoes on St. Paddy’s Day. This year, I’m adding a new dessert: Lucky Charms Treat Bars, which should be magically delicious.
Then there’s Ostara, the Vernal Equinox, the #1 day of Spring. That involves quiche, green salads, baked bread.
Samantha came by yesterday to help me make cake pops. They turned out tasty, but not too pretty, and we had a lot of fun. My baby grandie will turn 11 next week! I’ll be out of town, so this was our Party…
Nova won 1st Place at her Speech Competition last week! Go, Nova!
My New Yorkers are in Ireland, competing in the All Ireland competition, so I’m sending Radiant Beams of Supportive Vibrations to them as they dance.
There’s a convergence of Holy Days this week – Tuesday is Mardi Gras, Lunar New Year, and Ramadan starts at sunset. Oh, I guess Ash Wednesday is the real Holy Day, and Ramadan goes on for a month, but New Year and Mardi Gras are serious Party Days. Bring on the Jambalaya and Hurricanes…and Spring Rolls.
On Thursday I’m meeting up with Dee to see the USI play, “Almost, Maine”. It looks like another good one.
On Friday morning, we’re setting out for Disney World, where I’ll be spending my Birthday #73 week. Arriving on the 22nd, we’ve got Lightning Lanes for TRON that evening, our first time to ride it with the lights on. It’s a great ride, a little short, but the lights should enhance the experience.
To celebrate my actual birthdate, 2/23, we’re spending our day at Epcot, browsing the Arts Festival activities, and riding the Best Ride Ever-Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind. That evening I’d like to get over to Raglan Road so I can have some tribute songs and dances.
The next morning we’ll rope-drop Hollywood Studios and snag Slinky Dog, another of my favorites, and one that I missed riding last trip. We’ll be sure to visit the Tune-in Lounge and The Brown Derby Lounge later in the day, and to check the queue lines for Rise of the Resistance.
Our final day will be at Animal Kingdom, saying hello to the animals at the Safari, and riding Avatar: Flight of Passage. There’s a new “ride” there – Zootopia: Zoogether – under the Tree of Life, where A Bug’s Life used to show; we’ll be on hand for that. In the past, we’ve been able to snag a table at the Nomad Lounge overlooking the river to watch the character boats float by, waving and smiling, and we’ll try to do that again.
A couple of the days are predicted to barely reach 70, but that sounds Great! It’s been a while since I needed a jacket there, and I’m looking forward to it. All sun, no rain – who could ask for more?
I get a little carried away when I’m planning, but I’m flexible when there are unexpected diversions. We always have fun just being together, and if you know me at all, you know that I love celebrating my birthday. It comes at a time of year that needs light and laughter, and I always take advantage of it. I’ll take you along next week and we’ll celebrate together!
We met up with the Jrs at Ellis Park last Sunday for the final race of the season. I can’t win a bet to save my life, but Casey did alright, as did Samantha!
I had surgery on Tuesday to re-center my left optical lens and it went well. This time around the anesthesia left me drugged for a couple of days, more than in the past. Maybe I’m just getting old? After my follow-up appointment on Wednesday, we walked over to the downtown Market on Main. I’ve been meaning to visit since it started up in June, however, it doesn’t look like I’ve been missing much.
Anyway, I did drag around the garden, trimming and uprooting, harvesting, and arranging. Fall is in the air, and both gardens are finishing up their service.
My son, Michael, will be 44 on Wednesday, but we’re celebrating today at our usual celebrating place, so I’ll cut this missive short.
The News from Sonnystone Acres 