Mother's Day 2015

                                               MOTHER'S DAY 2015

                                "Who ran to help me when I fell, and would some
                                  pretty story tell....or kiss the place to make it well?
                                  My Mother!"

                                                                                    



     Well, here we are, another year, another Mothers Day. This year finds me hoping that my mother is looking down on my family and is very proud of the job I have done. I have the very best children and they have raised the very best grandchildren and they are working on the second great grand child. I already have one great that is beyond wonderful!
     It is a wonder that they got to where they are because their mother was scared to death when I found out I was going to have a child. What do I do? Where do I begin to give the love and guidance needed to raise a "good kid." After all , I had no mother to tell me or show me. So when my son was born, I told him that he and I were on this great adventure alone but we would figure it out. Oh, his father was there and some help but mothering was an unknown. By the time my daughter came along I guess I had figured out the basics because my son was still here and doing good so a girl fit in just fine.
     They both turned out to be people that care about others. One is a specialty nurse and the other a firefighter paramedic. Both have saved lives. A mother could not be more proud and I am sure their Grandmother is looking down and very proud also!
     So, even though I lost my mother when I was a child and I lost my childhood in the process, asking God and your Mother for help in all things will get you through and probably to a very happy ending. I am at an age where one would think I should be over loosing her. that hurt, that pain, that loss is always there, as if it where yesterday. We learn to go on.

 

                                         

                                         
WHY CAN’T WE STAY YOUNG


Old memories of childhood days,
Running in my mind like a video plays.
Sunshine and swings, slides and sand,
Holiday parades and a marching band.

If I’m not busy with daily things,
Feeding the baby and all that brings.
My mind drifts off to sweeter times,
When I could play and make up rhymes.

My mother spoiled me, this is true
I had no cares or chores to do.
Just run and play and have great fun,
From sparkling morning to setting sun.

Mom cooked and sewed and made sweet jam.
Dancing and playing, reading “Green Eggs and Ham”.
We had such fun where went the time?
We were her world and she was mine.

In winter there where snowmen to make,
Snow suites, mittens and cookies to bake.
Hot chocolate with marshmallows in a cup
My sisters and I would drink it up.

Spring brought the flowers she loved so much.
Gardens of peonies, bulbs from the Dutch.
Roses and lilies all in a line,
Hedges of lilacs smelled so sublime.

But summer was the special time.
I thought the world was truly mine.
We played outside, or went to the lake
A picnic, blanket and towels we’d take.

They say all good things soon must end.
Why can’t we stay young or just pretend?
And mothers are to last forever,
Not disappear with stormy weather.

                                        Luanna Prater


                

AND NOW IT BEGINS - SUMMER

       Lake Erie, Mentor Headlands, Ohio
                                                                                   

     It is Memorial Day weekend and I am so worried about all the families and teens going to the lakes and beaches, the swimming holes and back yard pools. This is one of the absolutely worst weekends of the year for drownings.
     If you have followed my blog, you would have figured out by now that I am on a mission to have fewer drownings every summer. I pray that you all have brushed up on your CPR, maybe even downloaded the ZOLL, Pocket CPR, it really is a great app, it talks you through every step you need to take to give emergency CPR.
     Everyone needs to keep a close eye on each other. Someone, specially children, can disappear so fast. Know how deep the water is where you are. If you have or are going to a back yard pool, the best thing to do is to teach, even the smallest baby, how to crawl out of the water, out of the pool. Even if all they do is pull up on the edge and hold on. They need to know they are buoyant, can hold their breath and doggy paddle to the edge. Teaching these things to kids, small children, even babies can be fun games. They learn to save themselves while they think they are playing.

                 "Every time we encourage someone we give
                                                           them a transfusion of courage."
                                                                                 Chuck Swindoll

                                                            MOTHER'S DAY
                                                         
                                                     

 

                         Well, its Mother's Day again. I have always had trouble with this day. When I was a young mother, with children at home, this day wasn't too bad. I was caught up with the kids making me things and trying to make my day special. Just having them was special!
                            But it is difficult to accept the idea that you don't have a mother to celebrate. At the age I am at now, there are many who have lost their mothers. Mothers that have gone on to a greater place because it was their time in life, after living a full and rich life, to move on. I have always felt cheated, felt like my mother was cheated. She was cheated out of life, seeing her children grow, feeling the hugs of her grandchildren, seeing their smiling faces. I didn't have  a mother to make little drawings for, to make paper flowers for, to make hand written cards of love, full of X's and O's. I was thrilled to receive these kinds of things as a mother and now, grandmother. And I know in my heart that my mother knows that if she had been here, she would have received the same.
                          When I get to feeling down and blue, as I do now, I remind myself that she feels my love even now and I feel hers. God helps to keep that line of communication open. There are those out there that feel the same that I do and if you don't know, you should, your mother is always with you, holding your hand.

UNDERSTANDING

"What do girls do who haven't any
     mothers to help them through
              their troubles?"
                   Louisa Mae  Alcott





 


My life has been very common and simple. No sky
 diving, though I always wanted to try it. No hang gliding, no skiing down the snow covered mountains of Montana. Things I would dream of doing, thinking there was still time, I was young. Oh well, to late now. No crazy teenage years, more like focus and hard work to keep all the emotions in check. I found a man that loved me and we married. Very common, low key, small wedding because we didn't have much money. We both worked hard, bought a house and eventually started a family.  First a son then a daughter, I had no idea how to be a mother, I had no example to follow, but they where the loves of my life. That was the first time I understood why my mother did what she did. That was the first time in all those years that I wasn't mad at her any more. I don't know if I could ever sacrifice so much but I do know that I would do anything to protect my children. 
           

Changing the Name of This Blog

Just a short note to apologize for so many changes lately. I feel like I need to find just the right name to express where I am coming from. I think I have it right now.  More later, Annie

CONTINUING MY STORY

     As I said in my last post, my niece has inspired me to continue with my writing. Her posts are so open and honest and I know they are, in a way, cathartic for her. As I was writing about the day my mother died, which was the same day that I almost lost my life. In reliving that day it came to me that there was someone who carried me to safety. This person was only a voice to me and strong yet gentle arms that carried me out of the water to the shore and then was gone. I never saw a face and now the memory of the voice is fading.
     That is a day that replays in my mind almost daily. This is something that I have never talked to my children or husband about. I want to put it all down, document what it is that I can not forget and maybe come to accept it at long last. I relive being taken out of the water but it never before accrued to me who that person was or could be. No one ever came froward. For all I know it could have been my own mother. She had saved others that day before loosing her own life.
     There are people that say they feel a presence that helps or guides them from time to time and they call that their guardian angel and rightly so. I do believe there are those that help us through this life. Few get to actually meet them, I did and I know they are here with me still today. There have been many times when I have asked for help or strength and I know God has been there or sent my angel to help me. You just know it, you can feel the burden get a little lighter or your mind ease. Yep, that's God and his Angels at work.