50+ A Wondrous New Year

Though It's five in the morning and I just finished writing-doing final edition, I couldn't help but think of what it means to have another year of opportunities. Wow! 365 days to enjoy and discover and do the things my heart sings of. Here are some frivolous desires of mine. Share yours with me please. Here goes as I sit on the bed and spread, my wings out over the world. 1. Turn the bedroom raspberry with a green carpet-Add pictures with yellows, purples, greens-2.Pack lightly and travel to Millersburg Iowa to see the origins of my ancestry then fly off to England and France and Ireland for the finishing touches-almost forgot Canada and Verches-a great part of my paternal side-3.design and embroidery a Christmas pillow for Anna our one year old granddaughter who-if she's still teething will -will eat the pillow and thread-but who cares? My wings fly when I'm around her. She loves computer keys and is the ultimate tease. So cute and rounded and cuddly. 4. Go to our cabin and sit with the,water, weeds, wild flowers, and skunks. There is much to be learned about natural behaviors from that which dwells outside. Have you ever seen flowers that are on the verge of a breakdown? I doubt it. 5. To celebrate life with my husband and partner and stay on track. Mostly I desire for us to go to a rodeo dance-to have some beer and do a little late night sweating in the Nebraska heat to songs like Crazy Girl. 7. I want to soften my face, and smile, and voice that I may soothes those about me. Lavender bath oil, a picked up house, a new hairdo, and zippy clotes would help. I may be 50+ but that doesn't stop me from making blackberry wine or blueberry ice cream, or swim with the dolphins. I leave you with this... Walk lightly, breathe deeply, and love others passionately. You'll be amazed at what you find.

Inner Joy: Christmas -Making Gifts-Sad to Glad

Inner Joy: Christmas -Making Gifts-Sad to Glad: As one who is now over fifty I was thinking back over the years to some of my favorite Christmas's. In ways I wished that I could return and...

Christmas -Making Gifts-Sad to Glad

    As one who is now over fifty I was thinking back over the years to some of my favorite Christmas's. In ways I wished that I could return and redo some of the things I have done. I think that as we get older we can easily become nostalgic or depressed because we can't return to what might look like greener pastures. But there is an alternative. Think of the years ahead and see these as an opportunity to write another story. Life is after all a succession pf events. I want to be able to look back and see the years I have left as precious as the years past. I say this not as one who couldn't look at myself and feel sorry. I was sixteen the year I lost a  depressed mother to an overdose of pills the day after Christmas.Following her death, there were years when I didn't get any gifts despite the fact that there was plenty to give with. I sat and watched others open theirs.
    Without Mom there just wasn't anyone to buy the packages or bake the cookies or decorate the house.One of the tings that I most appreciated about her was that despite how she felt, she gave. She was also one to decorate her packages, to fix a glowing tree, to have the most fabulous Swedish dinner of lukefist, potatoes, white sauce, and pudding baked in a coffee can-She also made spritz cookies, divinity, date bars, and all sorts of goodies, though I wonder how she did it as sad as she was. Regardless, I take her enjoyment and double it into the holidays, hoping  to make the world a better place and a happier place.   

   Here are some of the past enjoyments.One Christmas after we were first married we invited several couples over for a Christmas food in our small home in Lincoln. Another year I did pillows and designed an apron for gifts.But beyond this I have my favorites. They are always the homemade or home done projects. One was making grape jelly and ice cream sauce plus picking Nebraska popcorn and adding the Christmas morning breakfast meal,sending this to my siblings. An original Nebraska gift!. Another was doing a Christmas recording of stories and memories to send to relatives. One year-three Christmases back I spent days doing a scrapbook of my married son's life. I went back to his schools, the homes where we had lived, added school drawings from when he was five and six and wrote  a fairy tale done in pictures about his engagement right up to the wedding. When my dad was in the nursing home I made him a special Christmas tree to keep bedside his chair and went Christmas day to eat the dinner with him.My favorite project was making coasters out of genuine vintage fabric from an old quilt that I bought at yard sale.
     Other memories are cutting down tress and baking for neighbors. These are simple things but heartfelt. My sister takes exquisite pictures and sends them They are treasures and make fabulous gift.We all need to learn to step out of the box and make today a walk for leaving echos behind.It's a gift to others and the self.We have world filled with opportunities and ways to pamper ourselves and others. My most enjoyable Christmas upper is baking. I love to make candies and mixes that sit about the counter free to offer to others. This will be out first year with a little granddaughter, now one. Next year I want to give her a book of personally written stories. I like to think my mother must look down and smile knowing that I feel joy that was hard found for her. It means she gave me a precious gift,Christmas joy despite her depressions. We must move on and make today count. Sparkle;  treat yourself extra well during a busy season. Enjoy.

A Creative Christmas

What are we searching for come Black Thursday? Is any it of genuinely lasting as in the memories that come from rare moments that have little to do with stores but more with faith or something beyond what we can describe. Recently while my husband was driving I read a true story about folks caught in a mountain cabin at Christmas. This was years ago but it could have been today. It was with bits of torn cloth, berries, string, pieces of a bough, that gifts were made. The meal came from venison and vegetables found in the cabin along with some dough made from what flour remained, and there were games and singing among the people. It was of the most joyous and happiest of Christmases I'd read about. When finished, I wanted the experience for myself. I asked my husband what we could make for one another if snowed in at our cabin. Following a pause for thinking, he said that he could make me a rocking horse like the one we'd just seen at Bess Streeter Aldrich's home. It was adorable -homemade of tree trunks. I would be most happy to have that for my gift. As for what I could give him-I have a cookie tray and could bake -or I could write love poems. Since we both sing we could look out at the stars and do the duets we did long ago in out church-Silent Night-O Holy Night-Noel-and many other lovely songs. We could add made up stories. If we had a family, I'd record and we could each go about saying what we are most thankful for. In my experience as a therapist, children were happpiest over parents who loved each other and also over decorating a tree. By decorating I mean taking foil and making designs, constuction paper for more designs, making chains and stinging cranberries and if possible putting up a real tree. The things you can do together with a tree are endless. Remember what it's like to see the joy of a tree singing out from a window-It's such a spiritual thing. Add some bells from a nearby church and it's dreamlike. Back to modern day and homes. What would be wrong with a ten dollar present for those who aren't needy and what would it be like to take a sack of food instead to the hungry? I know. I've done it. Hungry children abound in America. Isn't Christmas about caring for the poor, the hungry, the cold, the widows,those who are with out a smile for the discomfort and worries of poverty. Let's unite and give-In the meantime-have a joyfull time finding unique ways to celebrate the life of Christ. Joy will be yours.

Putting Light in Gray Days

I woke up having a gray day. I think fatigue plays a role and sometimes its when I'm alone too much or said something I wish I hadn't said.

Perhaps worst is of all are the times I "Can't erase it." I would be interested to know about you but with me, I have an enormous child. Ha

Have you ever heard of "group mentality?" It's when a group gets carried away and later sets back and says ..Wow! Maybe we took

took this prank a bit far....(Like dragging the church bell to the middle of the street on Halloween!) I know of a group that did that years .

ago. I wasn't in on it...But give me a group prank, and I'll be your leader...

What does this have to do with this blog. I'll tell you. That inner child of mine has the imp of five. Because I'm happy for the Tigers, I sent

my Tiger #13 blog around the world and back. Suddenly, I thought...enough! What will your friends think of you and what are you yourself

thinking about your child's play? Quite frankly, I was embarrassed and than I was gray. The kid in me sometimes wonders why adults get

so grown up. The adult in us is the part that weighs, evaluates, measures, looks ahead, and say A+B=C asking, if I act like a "born again kid"

will I feel silly, or embarrassed-kind of like the person who drinks too much spiked punch and wakes up in the wrong house-(I have

not done that, but last week I got in the wrong red van, stone sober) I'm one that doesn't need to drink because I seem to get high on life

and the embarrassing things that happen to me...My dream would be to be the perpetually graceful woman some day or in my

next life-or better yet-maybe just for today. Today I go for my MS infusion. I am going to be an adult lady for one day. I will be gentle,

calm, poised, and the essence of the lady I wasn't quite meant to be. By now, I am feeling sunshine and glow coming in to fill up my heart.

Most importantly, God is lighting my way so all is O.K. . It's going to be another interesting day. I'll write about today tomorrow...

Meanwhile, wishing you sunshine,

Inner Joy: Crete NebeaKa /Doane Tigers/ Football Ranked 13

Inner Joy: Crete NebeaKa /Doane Tigers/ Football Ranked 13: Saturday Immense! A Cinderella team is born. Beginning their fifth season as the conference underdogs in what is the nation's toughest confe...

Crete NebeaKa /Doane Tigers/ Football Ranked 13

Saturday Immense! A Cinderella team is born. Beginning their fifth season as the conference underdogs in what is the nation's toughest conference overall- considering the teams of Wesleyan, Northwestern. Midland College, and now this Saturday ,Sue City's Morningside and lastly,  unbeaten North Dakota Wesleyn-we are sailing high, No one knew this was coming. Matt Franzen-all conference guard from both Gothenburg and Lincoln North East, and a Doane All-American Guard in 1995, replaced  Tommie Frazier five years ago. It was blood, sweat, and tears...but hanging in there-the  faithful seniors on down to the freshman and every boy who goes out each week. The win is in the spirit. It's in what you take with you and how you conduct yourself on and off the field. I have heard my son say that coaching most importantly encompasses getting the boys off to a good start in the world of ups and downs. I myself, am less than courageous when I watch them. For me it has always meant going to sit in the car when the stakes get too high. Sorry...I am not seeing anyone else take this course of action. But if I were to tell  my son, his wife, or the boys my reason for the trail away from the bleachers, it would be that my disappearance brings a reappearance. When I reappear it means -The Game is Won. Go Tigers! You are Champions...Hats off to Bessler and Mohlering and staff...