Birthday Celebration

During a time long forgotten, when life was still normal and humans didn’t have to wear masks, people were able to hold surprise birthday parties.One year ago today, we held an 80th birthday surprise celebration for my mom. The picture above is when she first walked into the room.

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A Glimpse of Halloween

What a perfect night for Halloween in suburban Chicago 2018. The temperature requires only a sweater. The sky displays layers of pale yellow to pinkish-gray, reflecting onto golden glowing trees.

Give and Receive

This is being written off the cuff, so bear with me.

I don’t have a lot of time for blogging this month, so this will be brief. I’m feeling emotional and confused about humans today.

Brothers vs. Sisters

Do you have any siblings? Sister(s)? Brother(s)? Both?

I observed something regarding siblings over the weekend that I found fascinating. Another intricacy of the human mind and relationships.

The Reluctant Caregiver

Thank you for reading my blog. Yes, you who are reading this right now. I have benefited from the support in this blogging community and would like to give support in return by offering a once per month guest post.

Almost Perfect

May 19th marked the second year anniversary of our move out of Florida and back to where I grew up in the Chicago suburbs. Many of you who followed me in Florida, know how much I wanted out. Still, I wasn’t sure how well I’d do back home after twenty-seven years away.

Relationship Challenges

Have you ever been baffled by someone in your family? Okay, let me clarify.

Family Transitions

The house where I grew up.

My mom has only lived in two places since I was born … the house I was raised in, and the house she moved to after I left the nest.

Winter Cyclone

We’ve had six inches of snow or better for the last three weekends in a row. On top of that, my husband and I had a cyclone hit our house. It was named JNC. A picture of it is below.

Through the Eyes of . . .

Do you see through your own eyes?

Stages

My head is spinning from the whirlwind that has been my life since the 4th of July. We still have about a dozen boxes to unpack in our new home, plus need to hang pictures and decorate. There will be more updating to the house as well, but at least the major fixes are done for a few years.

In the mean time, I find myself experiencing the stages of grief over losing my mother-in-law three weeks ago.

Send Down the Rope

I don’t even know where to begin to write this difficult post. I hope you’ll follow along anyway, because this is important … to me.

Parentless

So, what’s a person to do who is parentless on Father’s Day?

Extra Ordinary

I had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend with family and friends. I can’t express how overjoyed I was not not to have to drive 100 to 1,200 miles to be with loved ones.

Cavatelli

This is the second installment of a day in the kitchen with mom.  Only this time, it was our other mom.

My husband had been wanting to spend time with each of our mom’s in the kitchen, and a few weeks after he baked apple slices with his mom, he asked my mom, V, to teach him how to make pasta from scratch.

Decoding Stories

My husband has asked me to write about a subject near and dear to his heart … to both of our hearts.

My Celebrity Family

I’d love to say that I come from a perfect family, but I’m a realist. I know my family can be dysfunctional. This is not to say that I don’t love my family, or that we didn’t have some wonderful “Leave it to Beaver” times, because we had some of those moments, too. The key is, to accept all the moments, and I’m grateful for them. They are a part of this journey called, Life.

Now, onto the celebrity portion of this post. You see, some celebrities have actually taken a part in my family life.

Owning Choices

So, due to the high cost of living and job insecurity in the Chicago area, we found a more financially sound place to live in Florida.

This meant, I needed to say goodbye to all of my family and friends, which was not an easy task.

Real Life Editing

It’s that time of year already.

Shopping, cold, snow, decorations, and lights. I like to take time out from it all and relax with the Christmas movies. Personally, I prefer the old standbys … It’s a Wonderful Life and Miracle on 34th Street. I also enjoy Polar Express.

My husband’s favorite, however, is this movie. Can you tell which one it is?

Grow Old With You

When couples get married, they presume it’s for life, and that they will grow old together. If you pay attention to statistics, fifty percent of them won’t make it that far.

Most couples don’t realize when they’re young, what growing old together really means, because aging is not for sissies.

I know of a couple who have been married for over sixty years. They show everyone the true meaning of growing old together, being the strength for one another in every moment of every day. Their love for one another never ceases.