All In A Decade

Today is my 55th birthday.

Exactly ten years ago, on a whim, I decided to start writing a blog.  At that point I had no idea why and was fairly sure that no one really wanted to read what I was writing.  But, I did it.  The title perfectly summed up what I wrote about, all the things that happened in my day.  I was faithful to the process for quite awhile.  And then I became unfaithful.  And then faithful again.  And then unfaithful.  It was like the the plucking of the flower petals...he loves me, he loves me not, faithful to blog posting, not faithful to blog posting...and there I ran out of petals.  Realizing that this was the tenth anniversary of beginning All In A Day and that I have done a terrible job keeping up makes me sad.  So much has happened in my life during these ten years, some of it I have written about and lots of other parts I have not.  Here is the condesnsed version.

• I have lost both of my parents.  My mom died three days after my first post in 2006 and my dad in 2014.
• Both of my girls have graduated from high school and college.  
• I have gotten divorced and remarried.  A new flower with enough petals to end with "He loves me." 
• I've moved about fifty miles away from where I lived for 25 years, from the country to the city.
• I've lost a few friends and made a whole lot more.
• I succumbed to Facebook.
• I've reconnected with friends from high school and college.
• I've lost some weight.  Gained some weight.  Lost some weight.  Gained some weight.  I need another petal on this one too!
• I've traveled to many U.S. cities that I have never before visited.
• I've been to Europe three times - once to Italy and twice to England.
• I've had some stitches, just a few and it was the fig's fault for not being still, not my mediocre knife skills!
• My hair has gone from really short to really long.
• I have discovered my love of photography.
• I broke my leg.  It was a sacrifice I made for my art.  I NEEDED to be in THAT spot.  They shouldn't have put that big drop off there, especially when it was dark when I needed to be there.
• I have gained two dogs and a cat and lost three cats.
• I have read lots of books, but not as many as I would like.
• I have written lots of haiku but not as many as I would like.
• I have knitted lots of things but I still have lots of "unknitted" yarn.
• I have become part of NOAH (National Organization for Albinism and Hypopigmentation) and now have lots of cool pale pals.
• I still don't like mushrooms, olives, peas, or fish.  I've tried.  I really have!   It hasn't worked.
• I have become part of the online community Capture Your 365 and have taken at least one photo every single day for the last four years.
• I have learned to drink coffee, lots of coffee.
• I am writing two other blogs: Pixels, Plates, and LOLs with Tracey, a new friend, and Blueper B's Blueprints with Weber and our furry blue and orange monster, Blueper B.
• I have had lots of thoughts that have not made it to written words.
• I have learned to relax.
• I have learned to love myself.
• I have learned how to be happy, really happy...not just on the outside, but on the inside too.
• I have remembered how much I love to write.

As I reflect on 2016 and look forward to my desires for 2017, reviving my relationship with my blog is at the top of the list.  I miss it.  I want it.  I need it.  It doesn't matter to me one way or the other if other people read it.  If you do and some of my words speak to you, make you think, make you feel, make you act, that's great.  But if not, that's OK too.  I will have written for me.  I will have acknowledged in words what is in my head and on my heart.  THAT is what I want.  THAT is what I need.  THAT is what I miss.

A stray petal...be faithful to blogging...has been found!

This is the best birthday gift!

Beginning on January 1, I will also post my daily photos along with my musings of the day.

Birthday Traditions

Yesterday was my 54th birthday.  In the last week we have celebrated both of my daughters' birthdays and Christmas.  It goes without saying that this is a busy time in our family!  Interestingly, all of the men in our family--husband, ex-husband, daughter's boyfriend--all have summer birthdays, an they are months apart rather than days.

Despite being packed in around Christmas, I have always made a point to keep my girls' birthdays separate from Christmas and separate from each other.  Everyone gets her own birthday dinner of choice.  Sometimes it a home cooked meal and sometimes it is a meal out.  This year everyone chose to eat out.  We had an evening of Ethiopian, Upscale Americana, and Thai cuisine.  Good food and good company made for happy celebrations!

When the girls were eight and eleven, we gave them a one dollar lottery ticket for each year of their ages just for something fun and a little different.  At that point it was an under twenty dollar investment, my limit on spending when it comes to gambling.  Little did I know that the lottery tickets would become a tradition that has lasted fifteen years!  At ages 23 and 26 this year, the cost now exceeds my $20 rule, but we continue to play on.  And if that's not bad enough, the tradition has expanded to include the adults as well!

As silly as it is, we all look forward to scratching off all of our tickets and seeing who gets the most bang for their buck...literally.  It used to be that Offspring No. 1 always did quite well.  Her winnings would exceed those of us who had MANY more tickets.  This year, however, that was not the case.  With her 26 tickets, she won $10.  Offspring No. 2 won $16 with her 23 tickets.  For once, I was the big winner with $69 from my 54 tickets.  That is a 24% gain.  Pretty good for the most unlucky member of the family!  Maybe I should reconsider my investment strategies for 2016. :-)

Another December tradition that started three years ago when I began taking a photo a day is that Offspring No. 2 has collected my photos and organized them into a printed book.  The past two years I received the book as a Christmas gift.  This year I didn't.  I started thinking about putting the book together myself, but thankfully that was not necessary.  I received the book for my birthday!

There is something satisfying about seeing the year's photos in print.  And an added bonus for me is that I now know which photos are Erin's favorites.  They get more room on the page.  Yeah, the book doesn't include quite the whole year, but that is perfectly OK.  Having 2015''s book done and printed before January 1st is exactly the motivation that I need to commit to a photo a day again in 2016.  That right there is a huge gift!

So here I ago...another year of fun and photos!  I am grateful to my entire family for all of their support as models, assistants,  lens cap finders, and most importantly, for their unconditional love!

Ironically, these are all unedited phone photos. :-)

Let's Talk About Today

My day began early and with the following two posts on Facebook:
1. "The time needs to change.  Getting to school in the dark is just not right."

2. Note to self: Beginning a 7:30 ear training class with harmonic dictation in the minor mode is not a good way to start the day.

And so went my day.  It had an early and rough start, but by my 9:00 class, things were moving along fairly well.  Five classes later, I was done teaching for the day and more than ready to come home.

Weber has been home from school for two days because he has Shingles on his face.  The worry was that it would go to his eye, but thankfully that hasn't happened.  I think that we were fortunate to have caught it relatively early and he started the anti-viral meds before it got too bad.

So how is the best way to spend the afternoon when one of you is exhausted from a long day that started early and the other has Shingles?  Meet with your estate attorney to rewrite your wills, powers of attorney, medical directives, and HIPAA releases. It's no fun, but it is necessary.  Fortunately, we found a great estate attorney who was helpful, efficient,  and had a great personality.  I consider a "hat trick" with an attorney to be pretty darn amazing!  So now its all done and we don't have to think about these things any time soon unless we have some major changes in our world.  Hopefully that won't be for a long while!

One piece of advice that the attorney gave us is to make sure that you have a HIPAA release form.  THIS IS NOT THE SAME AS A MEDICAL POWER OF ATTORNEY!!!  We all think that a medical power of attorney gives us the right to all the medical information related to a loved one.  With the passage of the HIPAA regulations in 2004 (I think) this is no longer true.  The medical power of attorney may give you the right to "pull the plug" perhaps, but you may be making the decision to do so without a complete picture of your loved one's medical condition because you are not listed on their HIPAA form as one who can receive specific details of their medical condition.  Crazy, but true.  I ran in to this with my dad.

When dad was in the hospital the last time, we needed to begin making arrangements with hospice.  Because I did not live close and was not there day in and day out for my dad's treatments, he had not specifically listed me on his forms as one who was privy to all of his medical information.  During his final week when I told him that he needed to do that, he said that that was ridiculous.  Of course they would give me all the information; I was his daughter.  Wrong!  He had to specifically inform them in writing that it was OK.  Doctors risk an expensive fine for each instance in which they violate the HIPAA laws.  Even if you are not ready to write your will, you may want to consider consulting an attorney for at least this one form.

None of us wants to think about estate planning and end of life issues, but it is a lot better to do it before it becomes absolutely necessary.  Doing so is one of the greatest gifts that you can give to your family ,and really yourself.

On to happier things...pumpkin bread and a cup of coffee before I go to bed, relatively early for me!

Today;s photo prompt was "repurpose."  At our house, every cardboard box is repurposed as a cat bed.

Time Passages

Yesterday marked the year anniversary of my dad's death.  In many ways it feels like just last week rather than last year, making me painfully aware of just how quickly time flies.  When I look back at my posts here as well as my own journaling, I realize that time really is the overarching theme in my life right now, with the majority of my thoughts being about how I spend what time I have.

I am definitely one of those people that lives up to the rule of the more one has to do, the more one gets done.  My personal dilemmas come when considering the list of things that I "have" to get done.  I spend an enormous amount of time on prepping for teaching my classes.  You would think after doing this for thirty years that I would not have to spend much time preparing, but each class is different and requires different things from me.  And, I'd get terribly bored doing the same things over and over again year after year.  Although, if I did that, it may make it feel like time wasn't passing so quickly!  Hmmm...

For the first time,  I am starting to think about what it might be like to retire, not because I don't like what I'm doing, but because there are so many other things that I would like to do and simply don't have the time.  As it is, I function on minimal sleep, which I know is not good for me.  Short of more hours in the day, I just can't do it all.  Then I have to start making choices regarding which of the things I want to do can get done and which ones can''t.  I don't like making these kinds of choices!  As Weber will tell you, it frustrates me and makes me really grouchy.

I trust that the solution to my time issues will come with much serious soul searching.  Everything will be as it should be when it should be.  Hopefully this will happen while I still have time for all the things that at this moment are simmering on the back burner to actually come to a full boil.

Recently, I did take one step toward doing something that I have wanted to do for a long, long time and have kept putting off because of...TIME!

Ever since I took the first semester of music history some thirty five years ago I have been passionately in love with the music of the Renaissance.  Sadly, the clarinet repertoire does not contain any such music:-)  All through graduate school I played recorders and crumhorns in a Renaissance consort and loved every minute of it.  Back then, I had this unrealistic dream of someday learning to play the lute.  That certainly wasn't going to happen while I was getting my theory degrees, or raising two kids, or teaching, or...and the list of reasons goes on as has time.  A few years ago I started thinking that learning to play the classical guitar was a more reasonable and perfectly acceptable alternative to learning to play the lute.  Mostly that thought swam far below the surface of my everyday thoughts, bobbing its head above water only every now and then...until a few weeks ago when it started to do the survival float.  It was right there on the surface all the time.  I have learned never to ignore this kind of nagging thought.  I did some research and ordered a guitar.  It came in on Friday.

I am excited to learn how to play, but I think the important lesson for me here is to return to that state of being a beginner, taking everything slowly and carefully and appreciating every little accomplishment no matter how small.  No longer does everything I do need to be about perfection or even being "good enough."  It is about pursuing lifelong dreams before it is too late.

I have no desire to be a great guitar player.  My goal is to simply be a happy person.

Peacefully playing

One at a time, a few notes.

Harmony will come.

KEB 10/17/15

Birthday Boy

Today is my four-legged boy’s seventh birthday.

"The Birthday Boy"

"The Birthday Boy almost 7 years ago"

If you subscribe to the belief that a dog year is roughly seven human years, then Adidas is forty-nine. That means that for the next fifty six days he and I are the same age. I thought it might be interesting to see how much age 49 in a dog and age 49 in a human actually have in common.

• We are both a little stiff in the morning but it is nothing that can’t be remedied by a good stretch.
• We both appreciate a hearty meal. I am a little more discriminating than Adidas. He enjoys any meal he can find - one from his bowl, Harley’s bowl, the cats’ bowl or any available trash can.
• We both drink a lot of water and thus never pass up a potty stop.

• We enjoy the same spot on the couch. Not simultaneously. We both don’t fit in said spot so there is often a power struggle for which one of us gets it. Adidas is more assertive than I am. He usually wins
• We are both carrying around a few extra pounds. I worry about that. He doesn’t.

• We both enjoy a late afternoon round of frisbee - me on the throwing end, Adidas on the receiving. I don’t mind being on the receiving end but he has a little trouble throwing.

• We both know the importance of a good night’s sleep and an afternoon nap.
• We both know the value of a pat on the head, a rub on the belly, and a scratch behind the ears.
• Neither of us has a Facebook page.
• Neither of us needs a Facebook page.
• Neither of us wants a Facebook page.
• We both believe that every day should start with a cookie.
• And, we both know that you can never show too much love.

To 49 . . .or 7! Happy Birthday Adidas.

Domestic Daze

Deep down, I really am a home body. Most days I am perfectly happy at home reading magazines and cookbooks, knitting, cooking, puttering in the yard (if one can call four acres a yard), playing with the dogs, listening to music, and even chasing dust bunnies (aka wads of dog hair) with the broom. I honestly don't mind the tasks of daily living. Having said that, today was a great day!

I should have gotten up by seven to run the tractor around awhile before the temperatures reached 100 degrees. I did not get up that early. That was a good start to making this a nearly perfect day! By nine I was in the kitchen performing my daily beginning of the day ritual - unloading and/or loading the dishwasher. This usually happens before the coffee because the coffee pot is is an integral part to the dishwasher ritual.

Once the dishes were done, it was time for that moment I have been waiting for (since Saturday), the making of the red plum jelly. I have enjoyed the pumpkin butter, but the red plum jelly is the true prize and one has to get it while the gettin' is good!

This is prime plum season so they are really cheap - as low as 79 cents a pound. We started with five pounds of plums. That cooked down to about 9 cups of juice, and yielded 4 pints of jelly. BK and I spent the morning straining fruit pulp, pouring sugar, and stirring the whole sticky mess. It is hard to beat this kind of fun! You know you are a very simple human being when the sound of the jelly jars "popping" after the water bath brings on tears of joy. You laugh; try it sometime!

For some reason, no matter what kind of jelly you are making or how much fruit you start with, there is always a little extra that does not fit in the jars. This may be the kitchen gods realizing that a taste test in mandatory. Even after sticking my finger in the almost cooled jelly to "make sure it is OK", there was still enough for my sandwich - a perfect PB&J - not just any J, red plum J!

As I was coming down from my jelly making high, I managed to finish the second sock of a pair whose first sock was knit about six months ago. I also finished a pair of socks over the weekend. I will post pictures of these as soon as my fingers are not too sticky to handle the camera. I knit a few rows on my Surprise Jacket as well.

Feeling guilty about not rising early enough this morning to tend to the overgrown yard, I did take a ride on the tractor tonight and get about an acre or so cut. It was still hot, but not too hot. I think it was below 100. As I made my way through the tall grass, I was met by all the grasshoppers whose home I was "renovating." Several of them joined me for a ride around the yard. One in particular spent nearly fifteen minutes riding on the mower steering wheel. Maybe there was bit of that jelly lingering on my hands that he got a little taste of. I wish I had gotten a picture of my co-pilot.

I wonder if being thrilled with these totally mundane activities is a sign of old age. If so, maybe getting old isn't so bad. I guess only time will tell.