Make a list of important things to do today.  At the top of your list, put “eat chocolate.”

Now, you’ll get at least one thing done today.

We’ve had a tradition in our family for almost two years now, and it has a name. We call it W. W. G., which stands for Wednesdays With Grandma.

Each Wednesday, I pick up seven year-old Clara and six year-old Elijah after school and bring them back to our house. Ever the germphobe, I first have them wash the gajillion elementary school micro-organisms from their hands when they come in the back door, then they have a snack at the kitchen table and tell me about their day. Typical snacks at Grandpa and Grandma’s house are: mozzarella cheese sticks, a handful of peanuts mixed with raisins, raw almonds and Carr’s whole wheat “cookie crackers,” bananas and baby carrots, or Greek gods honey yogurt. I also give them each a glass of water and a Flintstone’s vitamin. Elijah chooses orange and Clara grape.

Then they both settle in to their favorite things to do here. Elijah usually heads for the Legos and starts putting together swords, robots and Star Wars light sabers. Clara might take out a book that she’s read five times already but still enjoys. Last week it was Ellen Tebbits by Beverly Cleary. Elijah will sometimes take out a large illustrated version of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, lay on his stomach on the den carpet and slowly page through the drawings he’s seen a hundred times. Last time he pointed out the fox in the woods that he thought was a spy for the dark side, and the faces in some of the Narnian forest trees. Sometimes they both open the Grandchildren Drawer in the kitchen to take out their art supplies, and Elijah draws comics and Clara an illustrated game or journal. Once in a while they play checkers or Battleship while PBS kids TV is on. They like Curious George and Arthur.

After about an hour it’s time for Clara to change into her leotard and tights, and I drive her to dance class. Elijah stays with Grandpa and they have man time. Clara takes a backpack with her pink ballet shoes and her black tap shoes, and when I drop her off inside the studio, I then collect four year-old Vivienne, who is in the class right before Clara’s. I drive Vivienne home to her house, and remind her that when she is six it will be time for her to join W. W. G.  Then I return home and put the finishing touches on dinner.

Michael and I set the table and get everything ready. On Wednesday we have seven people at the table for dinner so we add a chair. Then I head out again, this time to pick Clara up from her dance lesson. She and I listen to a G.T. and the Halo Express CD in the van on the short ride home, and it brings a joy to my heart that I can’t describe, hearing her pure little voice singing many scripture passages set to music. “Grandma, maybe I should test you on the verses sometime soon, and help you with the ones you forgot!” she said recently, and I told her I thought that was a fantastic idea.

When we get home I serve everyone dinner and we eat together. Clara and Elijah always remind us to pray before we dig in, and everyone in our household enjoys the company of the little ones. They help us to laugh and chat about fun things while we enjoy eat one of my crockpot creations and a green salad.

Clara and Elijah are usually the first ones to finish eating (it doesn’t take long to eat two lettuce leaves and a tablespoon of chicken and rice casserole), and they know it’s time to pick up the toys and get ready for church. I take them to our church’s Wednesday night services, where something for every age is offered. It’s usually packed. Clara attends the little girls’ Prims class, and Elijah goes to Royal Rangers. They both love it. I sign them in and then go upstairs for prayer and worship, where I’m thankful for the darkened sanctuary and the music that leads me away from thoughts of things that weigh on my heart, and instead nudges me to thoughts of my God and His love and delivering power and willingness to help us as we walk out our puny lives. I take a purse-full of Kleenex and use it all up.

By the time church is over it’s already past the kids’ bedtime, but I figure W. W. G. is so special it’s okay if they miss an hour or two of sleep once a week. We leave church and as we drive home Clara and Elijah tell me about Royal Rangers and Prims and what they learned. And what candy they ate. When we arrive home they trot upstairs to get ready for a bath while I tend to things I need to do for those we care for in our home.

Upstairs when the huge tub is filled and ready, Clara and Elijah take a short bath and play with the small bin of toys I keep in our linen closet – there’s a tail-less brontosaurus named Bronto, a lime green tugboat, a plastic pirate, some large jacks, and a funnel, among other things. I put in a teeny bit of LOC from Amway (my favorite product by that company) and turn on the jets, and soon the bubbles are puffing up to their shoulders. They make hairstyles, beards, and bubble cakes while I read aloud to them. Right now we’re reading Stormy, Misty’s Foal by Marguerite Henry. Soon I wash their hair, drain the tub and go turn on the electric baseboard heater in our bedroom. I put two pairs of clean underwear and four socks on the top of the heater so after they dry off from their bath, they’ll put on something really toasty. They never fail to smile and remark about this. “Grandma, my socks are so warm on my feet!”

While they’re putting on their jammies, I prepare the pallet on the floor of our bedroom they like to sleep on. We have room in other bedrooms, but they prefer the pallet. I lay down a large blanket, doubled. I put two pillows down, one on each end, so they sleep foot to foot. Once they’re dressed they put on their slippers and we go back downstairs for a snack (because they usually don’t eat a lot of dinner due to the fact it had lettuce or tomatoes or wrinkle-your-nose “sauce” in it). They might have half a peanut butter sandwich, or a cheese stick with a handful of almonds. Then they brush their teeth at the kitchen sink, and give Grandpa a hug and a kiss goodnight.

Back upstairs, Clara and Elijah choose a book from the children’s bookcases in our dressing room, and they settle in for the night on their pallets. I turn on some soft classical music. I make a big show of covering them first with “the applesauce blanket,” which is a pale yellow Vellux blanket they like. Then I cover them with a down-filled comforter and they smile as it settles down on them. They know they have about ten to fifteen minutes to look through their books. Elijah often chooses a children’s Bible with unique illustrations, and Clara last chose The Seven Silly Eaters.

When they start to get sleepy, which is in no time at all, they set their books aside and we recount the things we’ve done together that day. None of it is that momentous, but we recite aloud what we did anyway. It’s a way to try to hold on to the preciousness of ordinary things done with these children I adore, and they seem to grasp why we do it.

Sometimes I tell them what I think they might be when they grow up. Elijah, who is an amazing puzzle worker and Lego builder, hears from his grandma that he will be a problem solver when he is older. I take him on my lap and quietly tell him that God might use him to build up, either buildings or people, that he might be called to help others solve things they’re struggling with, to help make sense out of puzzling and difficult situations. He looks at me tenderly as I try to bless him with my feeble words, and he seems to be taking it all in like a sponge. Then he looks into my eyes and quietly says, “I don’t like your breath.”

I tell Clara that perhaps she will write and/or draw someday and people will want to read her thoughts and ideas. I tell her that she is so patient and loving with her little sisters and is such a fine example to them. I tell her that when she’s older, Elijah and Vivienne and Audrey will recall what a wonderful big sister they’ve had, and that the way she treats them now will pave the way for loving and beautiful relationships when they’re all grown up with families of their own. I tell Clara that God will use her to bring peace and joy into peoples’ lives, and that she’s already doing that, even though she may not fully understand what I mean.

Then I might sing a song or two to them. They like “Jesus Wants You For a Sunbeam” and “The Life of the Voyageur” and “Victory in Jesus.” When Clara was three she often requested the latter song by saying, “Gwamma, will you sing ‘Bic-ta-wee in Jesus?’ ”

I then pray briefly and ask God to give them deep sleep, good dreams, and for Him to keep His hands steady upon them their whole lives, to keep them close to Him and loving Him with their whole hearts. They might not know all that this entails, and I might not know it either, but God does. I’m so thankful He can read our hearts when our words fail.

Within minutes they’re fast asleep, and I slip back downstairs to take care of tasks still calling my name. I clean the kitchen, visit with others as I get medications ready, talk with them about what the next day might hold for them, ask them about what they’d like to do for the coming weekend, etc. My dear husband might rub my feet and scratch the grooves left in my ankles from my SmartWool socks, which is a little bit of heaven for me. Before we both head upstairs for the night, I make sure everyone in the house is fine and tucked in or has everything they need. I lock the doors, turn out the lights, turn down the furnace.

Each Thursday morning when we get up there’s a lot to do. I lay out clothes for Clara and Elijah, quietly wake them up and tell them I’ll see them downstairs when they’re dressed. Then I go down, still in my exceedingly attractive red plaid flannel nightgown, to turn up the heat, begin making lunches, setting out medications, making each person a different breakfast, feeding the dogs and making sure they go out, and more. I might even throw in a load of laundry right away. Clara and Elijah always come down with sleepy smiles on their faces. They like to have Maple Pecan Crunch cereal for breakfast, and I always put a small handful of fresh pecans on top.

Once they’re dressed in their school clothes, we turn on the television for a few minutes while I do Clara’s hair, which is very long. Mostly I put it in a French braid. They brush their teeth again, I give them each a small snack to take to school with them, and they make sure they have their backpacks before they put on their coats, gloves and shoes.

Clara and Elijah usually take the bus, but on W. W. G. I drive them the six blocks to their school. In the few minutes it takes, I remind them that it won’t be long before the next Wednesday With Grandma, and that I’ll be thinking of them and praying for them every single day. When we pull up in front of the school with many buses, cars, crossing guards and children bustling around, I hop out to slide open the van door for a last hug.

“I love you! Jesus is with you today!” I whisper in Clara’s ear and in Elijah’s ear as I kiss them goodbye and watch them both run off to the front door of the big brick building.

I drive the six blocks home, wiping tears and blowing my nose and praying for all seven of my grandchildren, not just for the two that are old enough and near enough to have W. W. G.

Wednesdays With Grandma.

Who knew a day in the middle of the week could mean so much?

Recently I realized that it has been two and a half years since I’ve had my eyes checked. That’s too long if one is legally blind in one’s right eye and one is over fifty. Besides, my old glasses were looking pretty outdated and I thought it was time for a frame change along with a new prescription. My old specs were wire-rimmed and they sort of added to the whole grandma look that I seem to be headed toward, no matter how hard I dig in my heels.

Aren’t there so many unique frames to choose from these days? I like the smallish rectangular frames with the wider earpieces that often have designs on them, like these. I tried some of those on but then my peripheral vision was obstructed, and when one is legally blind in one eye, one doesn’t usually opt for eye-wear that obstructs what precious little vision one has. It’s sort of an optical rule of thumb.

So anyway, I decided to try something different. No wire-rims for me. I thought I’d go with something more trendy, something that doesn’t blend into my pale face quite so much.

I have a friend who wears some very cool retro cat-eye frames that resemble the ones I wore when I was a little girl, but they didn’t look right on me. (Just as they didn’t look right on me then – and my parents wondered why they had to nag me to wear my glasses.)

I tried on at least twenty frames and most of them looked pretty bad. After thinking that I might have to stick with wire-rims after all, I finally found two that were acceptable, but neither one was an aha sort of frame, as in “Aha! These are darling! I think I’ll take these! Wearing glasses every waking minute isn’t so bad after all!”  The two I chose were just okay, and I ended up opting for the darker ones.

So here are my new glasses. How would you describe them?

A little severe looking? Clinical, perhaps? Or studious. Definitely a tad on the geeky side, which is fine with me. Harriet the Spy also comes to mind.

Hopefully I’m set in the eyewear department until early 2012.

I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble.

~ Helen Keller

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

Our home has now been declared an official sanctuary for goldfinches by the National Audubon Society.

That’s not really true, but it I think it should be.

You can read about our adventures with trying to buy three simple bird prints from a reputable and well-known online company if you click here.

Each time I called the company to explain that yet another goldfinch print was done wrong and had been shipped to me, they were very friendly and promised to get right on it to correct the order. Then another print would arrive by FedEx and it would be wrong too. I sent a photo to their returns department with every wrong bird print that arrived. Each time I called I spoke slowly and patiently, and I gave exact measurements and even talked to supervisors, but as you can see in the photo below, they still weren’t able to get it right. (I even asked my son-in-law Chris, who is a master in dealing with people in situations like this, to call the company for me.)

The two framed prints on the left (the Eastern Bluebird and the Northern Cardinal) are the correct size. The aviary of goldfinches to the right of those are all the wrong size; none of them match the size of the cardinal and bluebird.

On Saturday I received another nicely matted and framed print (the one on the far right), and not only is it again the wrong size, but this time they used the wrong frame. It might be hard to see in this photo, but it’s a different color and design than the others. **Sigh**

When I called the company again and told them that we now have a small flock of goldfinches in our house, they were very friendly and extremely apologetic, and finally said they had lost confidence that they’d be able to get the order right, and stated they’d refund all my money. I was very relieved about that.

I guess I’ll be starting from scratch, and not using that well-known and reputable online art company again.

In the meantime, the reason I’m posting this photo is because apparently this interesting experience has made some of you laugh pretty hard. One friend said the whole “ornithological oddity ordeal” was my funniest post yet. I was rather surprised at that, because I wasn’t trying to be funny at all. But if this post and this photo will make any of you laugh again, I certainly want to foster and accommodate that!

Here’s to some hearty ha-ha-ing!

This is the time of year when many people think about taking up a hobby. In my part of the country those of us who don’t cross-country ski, snowboard, or ice fish, think of inside pursuits to while away the cold winter months that are fast approaching.

Some of my friends and loved ones knit. Another friend crochets. Another quilts. I know someone else who does the most amazing cross-stitch creations you can imagine. One of my friends makes gorgeous jewelry. Years ago I used to try my hand at creative scrapbooking but now turn to my beloved books more and more.

For those of you who get that winter hankering to do something creative with your hands, I have a hobby for you to consider.

I’m not sure what it’s called yet – maybe after looking at the photo below you’ll be able to help me with a name for this new crafty trend.

I learned about this new hobby a couple of weeks ago when I opened my home for a Mexican potluck dinner with several women from my church. As we sat together and enjoyed Chris’s Mexican lasagna, Carol’s Mexican rice, Kim’s homemade salsa and chicken tortilla soup, Ginny’s most-delicious-ever-eaten refried beans and Darlene’s Sopapilla Cheesecake, we had the greatest time together. We laughed and shared and enjoyed each other’s company so much, even though some of us were just newly acquainted with some of the women there. It was a relaxed, comfortable, joyful time.

One of the women in attendance was encouraged to share about her job as caretaker to a millionaire family in our area. She works at their breathtakingly beautiful old mansion and caters to the whims and fancies of whatever it is millionaires feel they need. We learned at our Mexican potluck dinner that some millionaires feel very strongly about their toilet paper. This particular family has fourteen bathrooms in their mansion on the lake. And part of this lovely woman’s job as caretaker for this mansion is to make sure the toilet paper in all fourteen bathrooms is just right. Not just well-supplied and always within reach. Not just hung properly, with the paper coming over the top rather than from behind. No. Our dear friend’s job description as caretaker to a millionaire’s mansion is not only to shop and clean and set gorgeous tables and who-knows-what-else, but it is also to make sure that every single toilet paper roll in all fourteen of the bathrooms looks like this when it’s hanging in its place:

See the little banner that hangs down as a pointed pocket, holding the perfectly folded little fan? Have you ever seen anything like this? By this time we had all discreetly unbuttoned our jeans and pushed our plates away, and our friend gave us a lesson on how to create this lovely fan in its holder on a regular roll of toilet paper.

After I picked my jaw up off the ground and reigned in my thoughts about millionaires, I immediately grabbed the camera to snap a picture of this because I knew it would provide inspiration for my readers in search of a hobby.

Here are the amazingly simple instructions: tear off two squares of tissue and fold back and forth back and forth evenly to make accordion pleats, then fold in half to bring pleats together in the shape of a fan. Set aside. Next, pull several squares of toilet paper down away from the roll, keeping them intact with the roll. Fold the two corners up toward each other to make a v-shape pointing downward, then fold this v up toward the roll. Then take the two sides of the paper and fold slightly under toward the roll, creating a gradual diagonal line from the roll down to the end of the hanging piece. Press firmly on each side to crease. Make sure it’s even and crisp looking. Then bring that small tab up again and press to form a secure pocket in which to place your perfectly folded small fan.

So simple, and it only takes about sixteen minutes to do each one. When setting the fan down in the little pocket, take care to do it gently so the pocket holds. If it doesn’t hold and tears, you have to start all over again. But since it’s your new hobby, you wouldn’t be that upset if it didn’t work the first time around, because part of the reason one takes up a hobby is to keep busy and to have something to do with one’s hands, right?

Once mastered, you should do this each time the toilet paper is used, so that the next person in your bathroom is greeted with this delightful little outhouse origami.

Let’s just think this through together. If you’re hankering for a hobby and decide to take up knitting, you’ll have to buy a beautiful designer knitting tote, a bunch of needles in different sizes, some stitch counters, some pattern books, and dozens of skeins of some yarn. And if you wanted to knit something beautiful, you’d have to buy higher end yarn like my daughter dyes, here at her website. If you take up quilting, you’ll have to drag out your sewing machine onto the dining room table, buy a few hundred pieces of fabric, an Olfa board and a rotary cutter, lots of needles and thread, some bifocals, some batting and a hoop. If you want to learn to do counted cross-stitch, you’ll need patterns, charts, canvas, lots of colorful thread roughly the size of DNA strands, and a powerful magnifying glass. If scrapbooking is what you’re leaning toward, you need a nice acid-free scrapbook to start with, different colors of acid-free backing paper, acid-free adhesive, acid-free stickers, acid-free doo-dads, a miniature paper cutter, several pairs of decorative scissors, and a craft room addition on the back of your house.

If you decide to start small and take up the hobby of toilet paper folding, you’re most likely already set to go! Nothing to buy, nothing to haul with you, no special place on the dining room table is needed. All you need is a bathroom, two hands, and a roll of toilet paper. Anyone can do this! Are you a homeschooling mom? This could be your children’s art project next Friday! Teach your little ones the joys of toilet paper folding and they can learn to craft this diminutive fan in its holder each time the bathroom gets used.

And here’s one final benefit to taking up this new hobby. Consider what people’s opinion of you might be if they visit your home and see this unique and elegant creation waiting for them in your bathroom! Your friends will view you in a whole new way. And you will have a satisfying new hobby to busy yourself with this winter.

Me? I haven’t been able to master the fan yet.

I think I’ll stick to blogging and reading books…and praying for my friend who works for the millionaires.  🙂

I have a good friend who is always smiling and usually quite cheerful, but he dreads the coming of November. He says he doesn’t like the eleventh month because the creeping cold, the bare trees, loss of color and resulting bleakness, the shorter, darker days, bring on some depression for him. For my friend, gray Novembers usher in a sort of gray living.

I understand his feelings, and can relate somewhat. January always seems to be my bleakest month, because in northern Minnesota it’s often so bitterly cold by then. Christmas is gone, long months of cold and dark are looming, and the wind-chill hurts. The happiest thing about January for me is the birthday of my middle daughter Carolyn. 🙂

But this post is about November. Here’s what November means to me…

1.  Thanksgiving, of course. Turkey, stuffing, tryptophan.

2.  The month my father died

3.  Vivienne‘s 4th birthday

4.  Carey‘s birthday

5.  Gail’s birthday

6.  Vague memories of my first wedding when I was a mere eighteen years old, in a tiny wayside chapel in Rough and Ready, California

7.  Soups simmering

8.  Attempts at baking homemade breads and rolls

9.  Snowbird daydreams

10. Decorating for Christmas the day after Thanksgiving

11. Time to buy our yearly two new Christmas CDs to add to our collection

12. Mukluks always out, sitting by the back door

13. Patience, waiting, hoping

14. Checking the weather report before leaving the house

15. Thanking God for remote car starters

16. A furnace that hardly ever goes off now

17. Gale warnings on Lake Superior, made famous by Gordon Lightfoot’s song “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald”

18.  Taking 1 Thessalonians 5:18 very seriously, as if right now my life depended on it: “give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”

What does November mean to you?

Imagine sitting in a warm and cozy cabin by a fire, while moody and majestic Lake Superior alternately pounds or gently laps the shoreline just yards away. Imagine the rhythmic creak of a rocking chair while a wonderful book is being read aloud by a pleasant and melodic voice. Think of piles of Bibles and books and Bible study workbooks on the coffee table, silent testimony to which well the visitors to this cabin are drawing from, which path in life they’re walking, Whose wisdom and face they seek. These are some of the snapshots I have in my memory from our SAGs weekend away.

We all have taken some sweet memories home with us from our recent SAGs retreat at Stonegate on Superior. Here are a few highlights from our last day there.

All four of us love to read, so it seemed entirely appropriate that Lorna brought The Four Loves by C.S. Lewis, and read to us about his thoughts on friendship. So many quotes inspired thoughtful discussion and one of our favorite quotes will be shared below.

Picture a soft and pastel-colored baby afghan taking shape as a loving new grandma’s silent prayers entwine with each crocheted stitch, making an heirloom that will cover that baby girl in warmth and prayer.

On our final night at Stonegate, Pat made the most delicious dinner – Spaghetti Carbonara, with a salad and garlic bread.

Pat, Julie, Gail and Lorna, the four SAving Graces, or SAGs. Enjoying the quiet, the beauty of our surroundings, the conversation, the food, and the friendship that God has given us.

I got up early on Sunday morning, wrapped up in a blanket and went out onto the deck. The sunrise was so much more spectacular than this photo depicts. As I sat there and watched I thought simply and profoundly (at least to me), “The sun is coming up again. That must mean that God thinks there is still hope.”

Five minutes later: the cantaloupe colors were replaced by pink and peach and periwinkle.

And here Lake Superior took on the colors of the sky. Soon after I took this picture we all started packing our things and preparing to head back to our homes and respective blessings and challenges.

I thought I’d share one of the passages on friendship we all liked in Lewis’s The Four Loves:

“Lovers are always talking about their love; friends hardly ever about their friendship. Lovers are normally face to face, absorbed in each other; friends, side by side, absorbed in some common interest. Above all, Eros (while it lasts) is necessarily between two only. But two, far from being the necessary number for Friendship, is not even the best. And the reason for this is important.

“Lamb says somewhere that if, of three friends (A, B, and C), A should die, then B loses not only A but “A’s part in C,” while C loses not only A but “A’s part in B.”  In each of my friends there is something that only some other friend can fully bring out…hence true friendship is the least jealous of loves. Two friends delight to be joined by a third, and three by a fourth…hence we picture lovers face to face but friends side by side; their eyes look ahead.”

This rang so true to the four SAGs. We all are blessed with other close friends and there’s no jealousy about this. We’re always so happy when we know someone else loves another SAG as much as the other three SAGs love her. But we do believe God brought the four of us together for His good purposes, some of which we may not even know about yet. We know that He has given us comfort, encouragement, laughter, hope, prayer, correction, challenge, loyalty and companionship through our little group. How thankful we are for this!

When the four of us talk about aging together, I’m usually the one to bring up that most likely, three SAGs will someday attend the first funeral of our group, and I tell them that I know it will be mine. Don’t ask me how I know – I just have a maudlin side to me that spills sloshes over now and then. 🙂  I have asked Gail, Lorna and Pat to share at my funeral someday and they have agreed.

For now, we are helping each other with the wonderful, terrible business of living.

We are “friends, side by side, our eyes looking ahead…”

My children know probably better than anyone that I’m a list maker and a list lover. I enjoy useless trivia, and whenever I see one of these lists on someone’s blog, I’m fascinated. That doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll be fascinated, however, when you learn some things about me you probably never wanted to know. 🙂

Here are some questions going around in blogland, and I’m jumping in.

1.  What is your favorite thing to snack on while you’re blogging? In the mornings when I do most of my blog writing, I always have a homemade concoction I call my Cappuccino Cooler, made of cold milk, instant coffee granules, Hershey’s chocolate syrup and hazelnut creamer. Other than that, not too much eating goes on at the computer. That isn’t to say a lot of eating doesn’t go on elsewhere. Just not at the computer.

2. What is one thing you wouldn’t want to live without? Well the obvious would be all my family members. My husband Michael, my daughters Sharon, Carolyn and Sara. Their husbands Chris and Jeremy. And their children (and my grans) Clara, Elijah, Vivienne, Audrey, Mr. McBoy, Mrs. Nisky and Little Gleegirl.

But now that I look at it, the question did ask “what is one thing,” so I think the one inanimate thing I wouldn’t want to live without would be books. The Book. And many other little b books.

3. Beach, Mountains, or Farm? Where would you live if you had a choice? I’ve roasted myself too many times at the beach, and when I visit it doesn’t feel like home anymore. Farm? That sounds like a lot of work, with an awful lot of poop involved. I would have to say the mountains. The Alps, preferably. Wouldn’t you love to live in the shadow of the Alps? That sounds like heaven to me.

4. What’s your least favorite chore/household duty? I am slightly allergic to paperwork these days. And I’m not crazy about dusting, so I just don’t do it.

5. Who do people say you remind them of? I was told in my preteens that I looked like Twiggy. (I’ll pause here while you stop chortling and pick yourself up off the floor.)

In my twenties someone I didn’t know once actually tapped me on my shoulder to inform me that I looked like Stevie Nicks.

In my forties I started looking more like my mother.

Now that I’m in my fifties I’m guessing it would be Doris Roberts.

6. Prefer parties and socializing or staying home with the fam? I would rather stay home. I enjoy a nice gathering with a friend or two also, but the very word “party” makes me tired. Although I did have several women from my church over last week for a Mexican potluck and it was one of the more delightful times I’ve had recently.

7. What’s your all time favorite movie? The Sound of Music. And One True Thing. And Anne of Green Gables.

8. Do you sleep in your make-up or remove it like a good little girl every night? I hardly ever wear makeup anymore. If I wear mascara, I always take it off first, or am asking for eye trouble the next day.

9. Do you have a hidden talent or a deep desire to learn something that you’ve never had a chance to learn? What is it? I would like to learn to play an instrument well, but don’t have the time to pursue it. The piano or the guitar would be my first choices. And I would like to learn how to write something publishable.  🙂

10. What’s one strange thing you’re really good at? I am good at remembering useless trivia and details, especially from long ago. Things like what color sweater Gail wore when the SAGs ate at The Olive Garden two Christmases ago, and where the four of us sat in the booth, and what the weather was like that night, and what kind of hubcaps were on my friend Denel’s family’s Ford station wagon in the sixties, and the colors of the ballerinas on her bedroom wallpaper, etc. I’m also pretty good at anything that takes quick and detailed manual dexterity.

11. What first attracted you to your spouse? His love for Jesus. His voice. His smile.

12. What is something you love to smell? Since I have suffered from anosmia for almost a year, I have missed smelling things. I have recently begun to smell some things again, though – like lemons and chicken cooking in the oven, and some perfumes. I’m thankful for that. My favorite smells used to be newborn babies, Beautiful perfume by Estee Lauder, pine trees and Michael’s neck.

13. Tell something about you that you know irritates people. I talk too much. I am a little controlling. 🙂  I think this list could be really long, but mercifully my loved ones don’t tell me often what bugs them about me.

14. When you have extra money, what’s the first thing you think to do with it? I think of giving it away.

15. Are you a silent laugher or a loud laugher? What makes you laugh the hardest? I think medium. I’m not sure. My daughters make me laugh – they’re all funny in their own ways and I love that. I also have a memory of laughing uncontrollably at my son-in-law Jeremy’s brother Jordan doing an amazing silent impression of a Velociraptor.

16. Where is your favorite place to shop? Online. Never in a mall.

17. What’s one thing you’d do more often if you had more time? Travel. To Ireland, Scotland, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Israel, and many other places in the U.S.

18. Are you a big spender or frugal? This is strange, but I’m both. I rarely want to go out and spend money, and I’m a saver at heart. I like to be out of debt, but I would think nothing of spending a lot of money on something a loved one needed.

19. Who is your favorite character of all time? (from a movie or a book, can’t be real) I have long loved Jean Valjean from Les Miserables. But today I think it would have to be Cynthia Kavanagh, from the Mitford series. There are certainly other characters in literature who have deeper, more memorable attributes, but at this point in my life, she is who I wish I were more like.

20. Would you want to be famous? No. Who would want pictures of their cellulite on tabloid covers? Who would want paparazzi stalking them day and night? Anonymity is a blessed thing.

“There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of every man which cannot be filled by any created thing, but only by God, the Creator, made known through Jesus.”

Blaise Pascal

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *