Dot`sThoughts

I sure flubbed up when listing the date of my parents birth- should have been My Father-1903 and Mother- 1904. That`s what happens when you write when you should be sleeping. I should have caught the error when I re-read it before I finished writing it a couple days later. WOW, I had my parents just a few years old, wouldn`t that make me their great grandparent? HaHaa.
Forgive my sleeping mind.

I started writing this post 4 days ago and am just getting back to finishing it. I must get it posted so I can get to the Tag that I have been Blessed with from both Hillgrandmom and Starry nights.
I seem to be becomming a slow poke lately. Who ever said there was such a thing as retirement. I think I had more free time to myself before I lost my beloved husband. You would think being alone would mean I had lots more time, or all day long to do as I wish. But, when you are living alone more people keep checking on you to be sure you are ok. Must admit that it is nice having so many who love me enough to worry about me, but I would rather watch them enjoying their lives and not worrying.

The post I started last saturday:
Here it is the 2nd day of February, 2008. Seems like Christmas was just a couple weeks ago. Where did all that time go??? I was just thinking of all those years I have lived through, and now I am starting another one. I feel I should give thanks to God for giving me all these years. Looking at where I wrote " 2008" and then thinking of 1931, the year I was born and oh that seems like an awful long time ago. So many presidents have come and gone during my lifetime and now we are getting ready for another president. That reminds me that my Mother spent 90 years watching a lot of Presidents come and go. If I thought 1931 sounded like a century ago, think of what 2003 and 2004 sound like. They were the years my parents were born. My grandmother ( my mother`s mom) was born in the 1800`s. She passed away in the late 50`s. She was the only grandparent I ever knew. I have lots of wonderful memories of her. I remember her living with an Aunt and my sitting on the side of her bed while she taught me how to knit a fancy bedspread pattern using needles # 00. Boy those long needles were so small around that it was hard to see the small stitches to knit them. Such a pretty rose pattern. I never did make a whole bedspread, but I did get a small size piece finished. I still own those #00 needles that my grandmother gave me back in the 1950`s and I still have the sections that I finished and had sewn together. These needles are so antique that you don`t see patterns today calling for that size. I have a nice picture of her sitting in a chair in my parents driveway holding my twins in her arms after she moved in with my parents where she stayed until she died. One of my Aunts ( Father`s sister ) taught me how to crochet when I was a kid. I was so lucky to have such wonderful parents and to be loved by all their brothers and sisters. Another thing to be thankful to God for- the wonderful family I was born into.

Yesterday was one of those winter days that you hate to see . You get used to the cold, even the 20 or more below zero temperatures and all the snow shoveling. But you just never get used to the freezing rain storms that leave everything covered with thick ice. My wonderful son-in-law just spent almost an hour scraping ice from my driveway and it isn`t even half done yet. I have a long wide driveway. Then he sprinkled the salt style ice melt over the rest of the ice that was too thick to scrape off. He told me he would let it sit and try again later to scrape off the rest of the ice. I sure would miss him if they ever moved from next door. He just knocked on my door to hand me the mail and newspaper so I wouldn`t have to go out. He told me to never go out in bad slippery weather, to just phone over and one of them ( my daughter or him) will get the mail and paper for me. He is so thoughtful. He also knocked on my door again and handed me an egg box filled with chocolate covered marshmallow egg shaped, delicious Easter sweets. He knows how much I love anything consisting of marshmallow covered with delicious chocolate. I am glad they only sell them at Easter and Christmas or I might be living on them every week. The closest I come to them the rest of the year is buying Pinwheel Cookies. For those who never had Pinwheel cookies, they have a thin cookie base with a lot of marshmallow piled on top of the thin cooky and then it is completely covered with chocolate. I also love those cookies. I`m not a big sweet eater, but that chocolate covered marshmallow will get to me every time. Too hard to resist them so I don`t buy them very often. Once in the house they are on my mind until there are no more.

I was just sitting here crocheting a baby afghan for an expecting granddaughter, my hands got tired so I decided to rest them. As you can see I didn`t rest them, instead I started checking my e-mail and here I still sit. Received an e-mail from my older sister saying she was off for her vacation to Adelaide, Australia. Years ago our oldest brother and his wife used to visit friends there and one time they took my sister and her husband along to meet their friends. My brother is no longer able to make the trip, and my sister`s husband passed away, so now my sister goes alone. Braver than I am. I would love to visit some of my wonderful Australian friends. One of these days I will ask her how much it costs to make that trip. Last year our youngest sister hinted to our older sister that she would love to go with her, but she told me our sister ignored her. I think she just likes to be the center of attention when she goes and doesn`t want to share the friends with anyone. But, that was the way she was raised- to think she was better than the rest of us. But, that all changed when my mother fell and broke her hip in her late 80`s. She found out her special daughter wasn`t as happy staying to take care of her. I had training when I worked in our Hospital, so I gladly went down to care for her. Suddenly my mother took my sister off her pedistal and started seeing her in a different light. Guess she realized how my sister put herself ahead of others. As my Mother said, she couldn`t stay a few weeks to help her out because she needed to get back home, but she can take off and spend all winter in Florida every year. Looking back over our growing up years, I wonder if my sister would be this way if my mother hadn`t made her think she was better than the rest of us, with the exception of also favoring our oldest brother. but he was different as it never went to his head and he never acted like he thought he was any better. Even when he worked hard enough to own his own lace factory and had a lot of money, he still stayed the same sweet brother. Only thing that changed was he tried to help any of our family who needed help. I am proud of the fact that Walt and I did well enough so that we never took a handout from him. Time were hard, but we managed without asking anyone for help. Every since we lost our parents,our oldest brother has been the one who held our family together. After many strokes, he now sits in a wheelchair or his big comfortable chair and is unable to do much, but he still is the same caring loving brother. He struggles to even feed himself and can`t walk or use his other hand and arm at all. He tires so easy and talks very little, but he still never feels sorry for himself, just worries about the rest of the family. We are all so proud of him, but then we were while we were growing up.
Don`t get the wrong idea about my older sister, we do love each other and things are lots better since we grew up. She even said "Thanks Dot" the last time I saw her. All 4 of us sisters had gone out to a restaurant together while my older sister was visiting. Her and one of our younger sisters were having a disagreement and when asked, I had to say that our older sister was remembering correctly. It was something that my mother had told me herself, so I just told them what Mother had told me. Now the sister I grew up with never would have said thanks, she just would have continued the argument. She is slowly losing that "I`m better' attitude and becoming easier to talk with.
Yesterday I again used the snow shovel to scrape off the ice and slush from my big driveway. This morning I finished clearing off the front steps and the front sidewalk. Still some ice near the end of the sidewalk where it hits the road by the mailbox and the newspaper box. Yes, we still have a mailman who drives up and down every road leaving and picking up mail in front of our homes. We can still leave orders for stamps and have them delivered back usually the next day. The rain this morning helped loosen more of the ice. Weatherman says more freezing rain and ice tonight turning to a snow covering over it before morning. So, tomorrow all that work will need to be done again. This winter sure has been a hard working one.

Now, to get my thinking cap on and decide which three of my wonderful blog friends to send the Blessing Tag off to. It is hard to choose when they are so many that I think the world of.
I had forgotten that I was first tagged by a wonderful friend- Hillgrandmom and still owed that tag and now I am tagged again by another wonderful friend-Starry Night. So, Time I stopped loafing and got to thinking. If it wouldn`t take a whole blog, I would add everyones name, but then who would the ones I tag send to since a lot of our friends are the same ones.

Hope not too many spelling errors as when I checked on "check spelling" nothing happened.