A New Baby
Last November, my brother's daughter Kylie had a baby--the first child of her generation. That makes my parents great grandparents, my brother a grandfather, and me a great aunt. When I was young, my great aunts seemed very old. One's perspective definitely changes. But the main thing is our joy in welcoming Lila to the family.
Sneaky
When Peter joined our family in 2008, we celebrated by planting three fruit trees in our back yard. We didn't get around to purchasing the trees for quite a while, and then it's necessary to wait three years before allowing the fruit to mature. That way the energy of the young tree goes into root development to give it a healthy start in life.
The approaching 2015 season will be our first year to taste the cherries and pears for which we've waited. But Peter confessed to me that last season he had already sampled one of the pears. I was confident that I had picked all the tiny pears from our two trees, but Peter confessed that he had hidden one of them, allowed it to mature, and then eaten it.
Mom: "How did you 'hide' the pear?"
Peter: "I took leaves from the magnolia tree and stuffed them into the branches of the pear tree so you couldn't see the fruit."
Mom: "I see. Was the pear tasty when you finally ate it?"
Peter: "Oh, yes!"
Crying Uncle
After ten years of living with eight people in a small house, I've pretty much given up looking for things.
For example, even though I KNOW that among the school supplies in the basement is a large number of glue sticks, finding them is a different story. It's much easier just to go to the store and buy the new glue stick that a child needs for school. I don't even guilty about it anymore.
My Dad
Mom tells me that the days on which his children were born were among the happiest in my Dad's life. In my case, he was a doctoral student at the University of Wisconsin, working hard to complete his dissertation and travel to job interviews around the country. My mother had finished her teaching position to take maternity leave, and they waited for me, their first-born child.
Shortly after Christmas break, I arrived in the world at 5:00 am on a cold, snowy Sunday in Madison. In those days, fathers waited outside the room until the baby was born. But after seeing my mother and me, Dad was giddily happy, and took off to buy cigars and attend church, passing out the mementos to every buddy he could find.
My Dad and I are still very close, and Mom told me another story today that brought tears to my eyes. Because Dad has Lewy Body Dementia, the parts of his brain that the Lewy bodies have attacked no longer function correctly. When a speech or memory portion of his brain becomes affected, he has trouble bringing certain words to mind. When he's occasionally clear in his thinking, this makes him very frustrated. But for years, Dad has been finding ways to get around his mental deficits.
This morning, I telephoned my mother, and the aide told Dad that "Mary is on the phone." He told the aide, "I love Mary" but he couldn't get out the word to describe how much.
So he put his hands in the air, and held them very far apart.
Happy January
Church workers delight in January. It's the respite between the fall festival season and Lent. I'm digging out, both at home and work.
The most timely indication of the fall's busy-ness is my calendar. I cross off the days after I've transferred relevant data. My last finished entry was Saturday, October 25. That's the day before Reformation Sunday, the first of the fall festivals.
Oh, Really??
My car inched along, as I battled to see through the blowing snow. The tires slid on the road at every stop, and progress to my destination was barely discernable. The wind howled as darkness quickly fell, and the driving only became more difficult.
A message on the car's dashboard lit up to tell me:
"Ice Possible"
Math Practice
There's a warming trend on Friday morning. The temperature is 32 degrees higher than on Thursday morning. If the temperature on Friday is 12 degrees, how cold was it on Thursday?
-20
This is a real-life math problem for one of my kids, based on information about Fairplay, Colorado, where my brother lives.
Older Mom
When I fell last May, the doctor asked me to use a cane until my leg healed. Peter compared my cane to the walking stick used by Lucius Malfoy in the
Harry Potter series.
Peter: "Malfoy's cane makes him look evil."
Mom: "So am I evil?"
Peter: "No, Mom. You're medieval!"
Sobering
Yesterday in a rehearsal at church, I was leading a group of junior-high kids. My son Peter plays in the ensemble, as well as a handicapped child who tends to say whatever comes to mind. The two boys were standing together, and got into quite a conversation after Peter forgot and called me "Mom" instead of "Mrs. Stahlke."
"Peter, is she your Mom?"
"Yes, she is."
"She's too old to be your Mom."
"That's because I'm adopted."
In the year that Peter was born, I was 42 years old. So I guess this "older Mom" shouldn't be surprised!
Bible Knowledge
My father's hospice aide is named Mary, like me. When I am visiting my father, it sometimes gets confusing as to which "Mary" he means. One solution we've tried is the "hospice Mary" and "daughter Mary." Another is the "Virginia Mary" and the "Chicago Mary."
Over the holidays, I was helping care for Dad while my mother took a much-needed respite trip. Dad himself came up with a better way of solving the Mary/Mary name problem. He called the hospice aide "Mary" and dubbed me "Martha." Since he actually spends more time with the hospice aide, it made sense that he would change my name, not hers. He also knows that I am a practical person, as was the Martha in the Gospel accounts.
Yesterday when I telephoned my mother, she was quite sad because Dad had not recognized her. Instead of using her name, he had called her "Martha." I was able to allay her disappointment by telling her the Mary/Martha story from my recent trip to their home. Mom and I decided that Dad calls us both Martha since we are female relatives staying in the home, rather than aides who come and go.
When I said goodbye to my mother, I asked her to tell Dad hello from the "Chicago Martha." My Mom really laughed at that one!
Outdoor Church Signs
HAVE YOU DONE ENOUGH? [sermon title]
BLOOD DRIVE THIS SUNDAY
Testing
I have been locked out of my blog for a long time. The problem was that I added a Google account for my workplace, and with two Google accounts the blog website became very confused.
But a computer-savvy church member gave me excellent instructions, and I think I'm back onto blogger again.
Sorry for the long pause, but in the month of December (and the recovery time in January), extras beyond my housework and job are a luxury.
