Happy Birthday Mom!

Today is my Mother's birthday. She died 12 years ago just before turning 70. Its hard to believe she would have been 82 today. How I wish she could have lived to that age.

My mother was an amazing woman. She could accomplish more before 10 am than I can in a week. By that time every day her house was clean, laundry done, and some kind of baked good would be in the works. Most people grew up with a cookie jar, we had a cookie drawer. It most always had fresh baked cookies waiting to be enjoyed. The afternoon might find her making a dress for one of her girls. I remember many times coming home from school with a new dress waiting, ready to have the hem measured. Perhaps she spent the afternoon visiting teaching some of the ladies in our ward--who usually lived right on our street. She may have been out tending the beautiful rose garden we had in the back yard, or chatting with Mrs. Bertolligo.

She lived a simple life. Family was the most important thing to her. Times were different then, she didn't live with her rear end in the seat of the car like I do. She never went to the McDonalds drive through for a Diet Coke. (Of course there was no McDonalds for miles around back then, but there was the Polar King.) Maybe if I stayed home as much as she did I would accomplish a fraction of what she did--but probably not. I have too many distractions...TV, Facebook, Blogs...that eat up my time in not very useful ways.

I will never be the kind of woman that my Mother was. I just hope that when I am gone, someone will think my time on this earth was worthwhile, her's certainly was.

Why Write?

I have often wondered if anyone would read anything I might write in a blog. I follow a few bloggers on a regular basis. My writing skills are terrible, I haven't taken an English class since 1973. Erin's blog is great, her life is full of fun happenings to write about. Her friends live interesting, global stories that I love to hear about. Amanda's photos are so fun to look at. She has become a great photographer--enough that I think I might like to take a photography class. I do however lack the proper equipment. My camera is "a piece of crap" as Erin put it, ans I don't know where the memory stick is. I did buy a nice Nikon Digital, but unfortunately it wasn't for me (you're welcome Tessa). Matt's stuff is interesting, but I admit I rarely make it all the way through his posts, they make my head hurt, too much looking up meanings of words. I read about the lives of other people in The Nie Nie Dialogues (if I knew how I would put a link for you), but nearly dying in a fiery plane crash is too big a price to have something interesting to share. Her sister CJane is a fun read, but I think that is because she is a great writer.

So, why should I write a blog. Maybe because I need a creative outlet? Maybe because I just need to count my blessings? I feel frustration in my life, stuck waiting for it to move on. Two years of job searching, putting my entire life into storage, and moving in with my daughter and son-in-law have been hard on me. They have been hard of Scott. They have been hard on our marriage. We don't need to talk about the financial part....

I am trying to use my talents. I have been busy exploring the idea of starting a business using my sewing skills. I have been busy making tote bags, purses, diaper bags, little zip-bags. I would post pictures, but alas, the camera issue. I plan on having Erin take a few pictures for me. Hopefully I will figure out how to post them. The problem is that in order to make them special, you have to use really great fabric which will probably make them too expensive to sell. However, it has been nice to create something that is lasting.

Well, enough ranting for now. Tessa's wedding pictures are fabulous, I have the complete disc now. I will figure out how to sort through the hundreds of shots and share some with you soon.

Julie