Blogging My Blessings (prev. known as I came out yesterday)

I came out yesterday. To my mother. I think at our ages (45 and 65 respectively) we are mature enough, worldly enough, and close enough to share this place. I won’t hold back anything. I will still be me.

I feel confident I have nothing to hide. I am who I am. I mean sure, there was that time I called her a hypochondriac and all, but HEY, my brother and one of my daughters are hypochondriacs too and it doesn’t diminish my love and respect for them one tiny bit!

I have always been a bit reserved with my family. And maybe a bit afraid that they would think me too kooky or flighty. But I am confident in who I am now and who we are as a family. I also have confidence in them to take what I write here for what it is meant. A creative outlet. Not black and white. Not always serious. Not meant to be hurtful. It is just what I see, feel or think at one moment and is highly subject to change in the next five minutes.

If she doesn’t run screaming from the Den immediately and sticks around and (gulp) starts commenting….she is going to need a super secret internet name. Any suggestions?

EDITED: Before I could share this with you, my dear mother jumped in with both feet and made a comment on the previous post. It is so touching and heartbreaking, I wish to share it here. As an introduction to my mom. Who said “I don’t share, but I left you a message.” I told her this is a safe place. A wondrous place of support and love. A community. Here is her entry, a little message from a mom/grama/great-grama at home on Easter Eve with no family at her house for the first time:

The eggs are cooked, the dye is fizzing. The crayons and egg dippers, carefully placed on the egg dying tablecloth. Droplets on my cheek, is it raining? Where are the kids. I can’t find the kids.

I think she can share and share beautifully. Now you get a little idea where my writing talent comes from. So help me come up with a super secret internet name for her?

Have a blessed Easter Morning.

 

Do you know what tomorrow is?!?!

This is a hard question. Don’t think you are all smart and sassy with all your “Easter” and “Sunday” answers, because those are not correct.

Ok, technically (you people and your technicalities) those are correct, but not what I am looking for. Can you guess?

 

Stuff Portrait Friday

The lovely and talented Allisone at Deserved Indulgence introduced me to Stuff Portrait Friday over at Random And Odd. This weeks topic was - Your favorite photo.

I have entirely too many to choose from. However, I still don’t have internet at home. Well, technically I have internet. But it only works on one computer and the 16-year-old who needs to do homework and can whine and complain much better than…well she has it. So I had to pick one I had on my computer at work. (I am not blogging from work. Why would you say such a thing?)

 

Holy Weekend

I got this in an email this morning. It made me feel better.

“To get something you never had, you have to do something you never did” When God takes something from your grasp, He’s not punishing you, but merely opening your hands to receive something better. Concentrate on this sentence….. ‘The will of God will never take you where the Grace of God will not protect you.’

My plan for the weekend:

• Get my grandmother’s mirror and sell the hot tub
• Confession - for my sake. I have never needed it so badly
• Coloring Eggs with all the kids (big and small)
• Early mass
• Presents for the kids (anyone got any ideas? It is tradition that it is something little and something for ’springtime’ i.e., bubbles, badmitton set, etc)
• Honeybaked ham, homemade potatoe salad (my mom’s special recipe)
• Kicking back and enjoying the feeling that I have been liberated from an awful hell.

 

Just In Case

I protected the post below…email me for the password! I will be glad to share!

UPDATE: Mission accomplished and email sent.

 

Protected: Ummm, shit

This post is password protected. To view it please enter your password below:

Password:

 

The Den Introduces….Watermelon

Here is the first glimpse of my next grandchild (primarly belonging to his parents MacDougal and Funsize I guess):

 

Wordless Wednesday-The World’s Youngest Guitar Hero

 

Dia duit*

Fellow Irishwoman Jenn at Enjoying The Ride awarded this to me:

To all of you:

May Christ and His Saints stand between you and harm.
Mary and her Son.
Patrick with his staff.
Martin with his mantle.
Brigid with her veil.
Michael with his shield.
And God over all with His strong right hand.

And lastly, to my former landlords: Fillean meal ar an meallaire.**

* Hello (lit. God to you)

**Evil returns to the evil doer

Enjoy your St. Patrick’s Day. I know us O’Healy’s will!

 

Very Positive Things About Moving

Moving is not fun. Well, possibly if you won the lottery and paid someone to move all your stuff and put it exactly where you want by reading your mind and all you had to do was drive over there and walk into a new mansion. Then it might be a little bit fun. I will say though that there are many positives resulting from our little move this past week.

• I know I have mentioned them before, but they are worthy of mention yet again. I have not one, but two working toilets within my actual domicile. Not at the neighbors or in a freezing cold barn. And flushing them has not once caused raw sewage to spew into the yard a few feet from Bear’s door. I call that an extra added bonus.
• I am so much closer to work I shaved nearly 30 minutes off my commute. With the average price of gas last week at high of $3.67 a gallon I have already saved $40 dollars in gas this week and I only went to work three days.
• There is heat within my abode. Hard to think how I managed without it. Truly amazing stuff. I have never had radiant heat (in the ceiling) and it is warm without vents and drafts and not so dry. At the old place when we arose in the morning it was usually about 56 degrees and we would have to turn on the gas stove to warm it up enough to shower, because our little electric heater just couldn’t handle it.
• Speaking of showers….this one is not a 3′6″ square. It actually has a tub. I can move around during a shower or soak in a tub.
• On the weekend when Nanny and company came to visit, we were able to sit on couches (Thanks to a lovely gift from MacDougal of his old ones) and visit. We could only fit two chairs into the old place. We were also able to sit at the table and eat dinner.
• This place is actually magical. One night I put our dirty dishes into this box under the cabinet and while I was sleeping pixies came and washed my dishes!
• The washer and dryer are in the laundry (hall) closet. That means no going out through the rain and cold to wash and then hauling the laundry over to the barn to dry it.
• A bonus laundry issue is there is hot water going to the washing machine. Do you know how much cleaner your clothes get when you can wash them in warm water?
• You can walk down the hallway without having to turn sideways. In fact, two people can actually pass in the hallway.
• Here I am allowed to actually hang things up. Our new place is now decorated and we were allowed to hang the toilet paper holder and towel racks too.

I could go on and on with things about not having gravel tracked inside, free water, wall to wall carpet, and electricity that works, but I will let you all go now. What was that? You say everyone has these things? Well, pshaw, who knew.

I do not have internet yet (should be done tomorrow!) and I have to walk down the road to find an unsecured network. I hope to be back full force soon and I will share an excellent story about Ladybug and some cute pictures of Butterball eating solid food! I may even be able to look up the Heads Or Tails for Tuesday and participate.