Sweet Potators

I'm a lemon lover...... like whopping bigtime. Yes.  I'm going to write an entire post about lemons. When I was little I loved lemonade so much, I used to slice a lemon in half, milk it a little bit so the juice was all loosened, pour a spoonful of sugar in all the little crevices, and plop it into my mouth.  I can remember riding around on my bike with a half a lemon in my mouth and thinking that it was like an everlasting, awesome glass of lemonade as I went about my day.  No effort.  Just there. I try not to think of the poor enamel on my teeth and instead think of the joys of being a carefree little girl and the simplicities of happiness that come so easily through a child's eyes. I have several happy memories of lemons..... My Grandma Ede's famous lemon squares.  Even Dana (my dearest cousin) and I went on a quest a few years ago to find the best lemon squares in Eagle/Boise because our memories of them on sunny, Sunday afternoons at grand...

Who's extremely independent and fiercely determined.... ...... makes my heart hurt when she calls me (and I know she's been sick) and says in the saddest, froggiest voice (because I've been busy as all get-out the past couple of days), "why haven't you called me the last few days?". Ugh.  [insert major facetious tone] Mother of the year.  Yep.  That's me.

Messaging back and forth on facebook right now with one of my dearest friends who's in Hawaii.  And though I'm grouchy, tired (obviously with it being the middle of the night and I'm wide awake) and a bit melancholy (yes, I Lizzy V. get melancholy.... and it actually feels good to admit that, LOL!), I'm adoring her enthusiasm for life..... it's sort of rubbing off on me. I used to feel like I always had to be the one that was constantly riding the 'zest for life wave' for everyone else..... but over the last several years I'm glad I've been able to come to appreciate those that pull me along on their own ride when I don't feel much like doing it myself. Isn't that what relationships are all about?  Give and take?  All of us giving the best of ourselves to each other, and when the worst of ourselves comes out being able to receive love and tolerance from someone who has the strength we lack, but then we give some of our strength to them in...

- indoor plumbing - Amazon Prime - the oldie time felt-tip pens - friends who remember - my mom having me take sewing lessons at a young age - Trivia Crack challenges - Gold Bond medicated powder

Trying to keep track of two blogs is too much. So, I give. This'll just have to be my everything, all-around blog. No direction.  No purpose.  No organized effort. Just living happy and taking one day at a time.

Knowing you don't need to be.......

And even though it's not the highest quality (a photo of a photo and my eyes are half shut), I love it for the sheer reason that two of the most influential people of my life.... women who shaped in a big time way who I am today.... are there together with me.... Shirley and Edith.... my grandmothers.

I've had two blogs over the years..... started both with the best of intentions.  But then, who starts new things/sets out to make changes in their lives, with the worst of intentions? Being the sentimental type-A that I am, it kills me now that I deleted my first blog.  It's like going back to your high school diary and seeing all the pages you tore out.  Not because it would be of any interest to anyone else, but because it was *my* life..... and no matter that so much of it was everyday ho hum, it still gives perspective to me..... a way of gaging how I've evolved over the years to become who I am today...... which wouldn't really matter to anyone but myself.  But still, there it is.  Because the first blog, and now this one, have been for me.... just me.... though, this blog gets viewed by people (I'm assuming people?  Who knows?) from mainly Russia, the Ukraine, Brazil, Malaysia and the U.S. for heaven only knows why, as my little life is nothing mor...

Yep.  With everything I should be working on right now, I came upon a legend that totally intrigues me and now I can't stop reading/researching/investigating everything I can find on it..... 'The Lady of the Heather'. 'The Lady of the Heather' was a Jacobite princess  - the illegitimate grand daughter of Bonnie Prince Charlie. She was kidnapped from France about 200 years ago, carried off to New Zealand and abandoned on remote Campbell Island. She lived for months, or years, in a hut at Camp Cove, one provided with lace curtains and even a garden, which included heather. Though seen by sealers who visited the island intermittently, the lady apparently died in her hut, a sad and solitary castaway. This reminds me a bit of when I was a teenager and I went in search of 'Adenville' from the Great Brain books.  Because it was a fictitious town based on a real place, I didn't find out where it really was (about 250+ miles northeast roughly of w...

Some people come into our lives and quickly go. Some stay for a while and leave footprints on our hearts..... And we are never the same.

.....maybe BIGtime weird, when you find out a person you play in Words with Friends lives a mile away. These are mega random games.  The person you're playing isn't supposed to be real. :-||||| Of course I didn't share where I lived.  I'm not THAT naive.

It is! It is! Though these photos kind of turned out weird.....

A serious flurry! I kind of go through these phases with reading.  I always love to read, but sometimes I just can't get enough... there aren't enough hours in the day for all of it! Anyway, I've got a nice new little stack of books to keep me occupied the next few weeks, my house is all clean (not mentioning the garage though, the bane of my existence..... ugh), and I'll keep it that way.... it's usually the hazard of my flurry reading phases.... and takes the brunt of it. So.... Starting with this today.... And so far I'm only 5 pages in and twice I've heartily laughed out loud and exclaimed "this is awesome!" I love books in the form of journals/diaries!  Even if they are fictitious.... though this is based on a true story/ diary.  Happy day! Some noted and laughable moments thus far: Mattie, on the experience of her 'matrimonial bed'.... "I'd judge it took a minute, no more than two, at most.  So it is...

I sort of ended up reading this book by mistake. I was out to lunch with a friend last week whose book tastes I have always admired..... every book recommendation she has ever given me (at least 20) I have loved. So, she gave me a list of about five new books to read and I could've sworn the above was on it.  Turns out it was just one recommended by Amazon because of a few others I was buying. It started out great.  Totally held my interest.  But the middle to close to the end dragged on and on.  And sadly it became a to-do list item because I wanted to finish it.  I Hate starting a book and not finishing it.  It has to be absolutely horrid for me not to.  I always figure that there is something to be learned, even in mediocrity. And I finished it today.  Took me almost a week. I did end up loving the ending. It was the kind of book that gives you a sense of how much better life is when you take hold of the moment and live it. ...