A Refreshing Day!

"A nation that destroys its soils destroys itself. Forests are the lungs of our land, purifying the air and giving fresh strength to our people. " ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

"A new word is like a fresh seed sown on the ground of the discussion." ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein

"A Poem does not grow by jerks. As trees in Spring produce a new ring of tissue, so does every poet put forth a fresh outlay of stuff at the same season." ~ Wilfred Owen

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Moody Monday offers us a challenge each week.. the photo challenge of today is Fresh....

Fresh~ • newly made or obtained • new; not previously known, met with, etc.; novel • pure, cool, or refreshing • not faded, worn, obliterated, etc.

~ Fresh vegetables..

Fresh Fruits~

~ Farm fresh eggs.. from our own hens..

fresh flowers priced to buy~

~ The freshest flowers growing right outside my door.. My favorite flower.. bought for me By My Beloved Dave..

a new life.. pure and unspoiled.. Fresh and sweet!

~ I have got to tell you that I really enjoyed doing the research for today's post.. It is amazing how quickly a produce manager can get a fresh mouth when he sees someone with a camera in his department.. Never fear.. he didn't say anything to me personally but he appeared to have a fresh burst of energy as he hurried to get the store manager and then as I admired their fresh flowers.. the floral manager as well.. they followed me around the store as I shopped for animal feed and fresh food for my family.. Just as I was about to leave the store.. I saw them all huddled at the end of an aisle.. all eyes trained on me.. I think I scared them.. finally the store manager asked me if it was true that I had a camera in their store.. I thought about telling them I was a mystery shopper or something like that but before I could come up with a fresh lie.. the manager made up his mind that I was a spy.. he told the others to head on back to their work.. that if I was making pictures of their stuff then it was because they were the best store in town.. Poor Dave was standing away from me as if we were not together or I would have pulled my camera back out of my purse and made a fresh batch of pictures and maybe even some of them standing there in their silly little huddle.. Needless to say I left there feeling refreshed.. Have a wonderful day!!

Patsy

Merry Christmas!

"Christmas Eve I saw a stable, low and very bare, A little child in a manger. The oxen knew Him, had Him in their care, To men He was a stranger, The safety of the world was lying there, And the world's danger. " ~Mary Elizabeth Coleridge

"Christmas in Bethlehem. The ancient dream: a cold, clear night made brilliant by a glorious star, the smell of incense, shepherds and wise men falling to their knees in adoration of the sweet baby, the incarnation of perfect love. " ~Lucinda Franks

"Christmas is a holiday that persecutes the lonely, the frayed, and the rejected. "
~ Jimmy Cannon

"Christmas is a season for kindling the fire for hospitality in the hall, the genial flame of charity in the heart." ~ Washington Irving


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I would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas....

I used to love the holidays and from Thanksgiving till Christmas Eve I was busy buying little things and wrapping gifts for everyone.. I took the kids shopping so that each of them could buy gifts for their other family..allowing them to choose something for their real parent and for their step parent and any children or Grandparents that might also be a part of their other family... after that I had to take them to buy each other gifts... as well as gifts for Dave.. he would wait till the very last possible minute and have the children to show me things so that they could try and figure out what to buy me.. I never considered myself hard to buy for.. a notebook or a pen.. a book or even a book marker.. a live plant or a package of seeds.. and of course there was always the doll or tea set....

The last few years I simply haven't had the same Christmas spirit.. I wonder if it's because I am older or if it's because all the kids are grown? Honestly I don't know... Dave and I have discussed and re-discussed what we want to cook.. he said Turkey and I said ham.. I have one of each defrosting in the bottom of the fridge... I told Mama tonight maybe I should cook and slice both and put them on the table with all the fixings for sandwiches... make it easy on Dave and on me... some paper plates and a cooler of ice for the soft drinks and we can lay around and watch TV and wait to see who shows up... Let each one open their gifts as they come and have a snack with us.. before they have to move on to the next house... easy on the kids too since they won't have to try and eat a half dozen meals while traveling about..

The simple truth is that we don't know who will be here and at what time.. now that all the kids are grown and gone it is just as hard as it always was for us to plan anything.. we always hated the fact that as soon as they opened gifts here.. all of the children had to be carted off to the other parent's house for the rest of the day.. then at night they would come home to us tired and cranky and pouting because they had to leave something at the other parents' house... Christmas hasn't changed for Dave and I... we still feel as if we have to take whatever time is left when the other family is through... Christmas has been hard for us for a long time... Dave said he thought that when the kids grew up it would be easier... I knew it wouldn't.. though my own family was always together .. I learned from Gaylon's family what it was like to have two sets of family... and as hard as it is for us as adults... I know it is so much harder for the children..

I have all my gifts bought and wrapped.. I have mailed a small gift to both of the grown sons who live on the other side of the world.. the gift pile is slimmer this year.. the economy decided that for us as well as for almost all families I know.. Dave said that he had racked his brain trying to think what to buy... he said with no kids to take shopping he was having a hard time deciding what I might like.. it was as if he needed a kid to take along to help him pick out something.. plus he knows that I like anything at all the kids buy.... He did great with my computer... he managed to buy it and get it in the house without me seeing it and most likely could have left it sitting where he had it and I wouldn't have even noticed it but he couldn't wait... I have been enjoying it for a whole week now.. he never looks under the tree.. he has a few things under there.. Dave loves anything at all that someone gives him.. but he says he would rather have nothing and have all the kids to sit down for a meal together just once on Christmas day.... without having to hurry to get to another place... I am satisfied that that will never happen but I do agree that it's a very wonderful wish!

Dave and I will spend our Christmas day like we have so many before.. we will cook together and wait for which ever children come.. we will worry about those who live far away and we will worry about those who might be traveling not so far to see us.. we will enjoy the limited time with our kids and wish then well as they move on to spend the rest of the day with their other families..

I hope that each and every one of my readers has a wonderful Merry Christmas!!
Patsy

Measure Your Feet Day?!?

“You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose. You're on your own. And you know what you know. You are the guy who'll decide where to go ."

~ Dr. Seuss

"Only a fool tests the dept of the water with Both feet." ~ African proverb

“Be sure you put your feet in the right place, then stand firm.” ~ Abraham Lincoln

Today is the wild and wacky holiday of Measure your feet day. I spent most of the morning after getting my holiday notification wondering and pondering why a person would want to measure their feet. I can't think of any reason other than if you were buying shoes. Then you could just try the shoes on. It was then that I thought about how My Daddy measured our feet when we were little children.

I guess there were too many of us to carry to the shoe store every time we needed to go. There were certain times of the year that we each got to go and pick out our own shoes. Those two times were Easter and the beginning of each school year. Easter I got patent leather , Sunday school, and any dress occasion shoes. One pair. I better take care of them. That wasn't a problem for me. I hated shoes and only wore them when I was either outside or at school. That meant the dress shoes would last me forever. Somewhere out there, My patent leather shoes are still waiting to be worn. Lost in the closet of a cousin or family friend they were passed on to. For school we got a pair of penny loafers. I liked them alright but still only wore them for school. I wish I could find me a good pair of loafers now. I think the closest you can find are dock-siders.

But when Daddy had to buy shoes and us kids weren't going along. He would come in with his notebook and have every one of us; one at the time; step on a piece of paper. He would take his pencil and draw all around our feet. then mark each paper foot with our names. He never measured the thickness of our foot and yet he would always bring home shoes that fit us. I tried that only once with my children. I had a mess. Anthony's shoes wouldn't go on his foot because his foot was too thick. They would have fit me except that they were three inches to long for my foot. Cooper's shoes wouldn't fit anyone who lived here and Even though Emily's shoes would have fit Cooper he said he wasn't wearing pink cowgirl boots. I even offered to polish them black for him and still he refused.. Can you believe it? So I tossed the paper aside and carried all of them with me to get their shoes.

I could never figure out how it worked for Daddy and Mama but never worked for me. It wasn't that Daddy knew our feet so well because even when they would get brand new foster children and they came in the middle of the night barefooted. Daddy would come stoop shouldered into The Reids store in the middle of the night with his notebook and be trying tennis shoes on the paper feet he had drawn there. They would always fit. The children would wake up the next morning with bright and colorful new tennis shoes. Maybe it was that Daddy had bought so many pairs of shoes that way that he had learned to gauge the thickness of a foot by his own drawings. I don't know how it worked for him. I just know it was not an option for me.

When my children went to the shoe store; they had a rug thing to stand them on and measure their foot, Even that was no good. Cooper would curl his toes up Making it look like he wore a size smaller than he did. Or he would try to make his foot appear to fit the shoes he wanted even if they were way to small or way to large. Once he even stuffed all those half stocking things into the toe of a pair that were big enough for me. They were snakeskin boots for a man and he swore they fit. Emily would want four or five pair at the time and throw herself on the floor crying if she couldn't have them. I finally had to threaten her with the notebook shoes if she couldn't choose just one pair. All Anthony wanted to do was get a pair of some kind and get out of the store. He said the rest of us were hoodlums.


Fun Foot Facts:

1:) There are approximately 250,000 sweat glands in a pair of feet, and they excrete as much as half a pint of moisture each day.

2:)The foot is an intricate structure containing 26 bones. Thirty-three joints, 107 ligaments, 19 muscles, and tendons hold the structure together and allow it to move in a variety of ways.

3:) When you try on shoes, try them on both feet; many people have one foot larger than the other, and it's best to fit the larger one.

4:) The 52 bones in your feet account for one quarter of all the bones in the body.

5:) If you place the heel of your foot in the inside crease of your elbow Joint, the toes of your foot will reach to your wrist.

And a bonus foot fact that My Mom taught me.. When shopping for socks if the sock will wrap around your balled up fist.. It will fit your foot. I have tried this and know it works.


I do wish everyone a Happy measure your foot day.. Even though I can't imagine why you would need to. I know they measured Coopers before putting a cast on it. I know Daddy sorta measured ours with his notebook to buy us shoes. I have tried the heel in the elbow crease many times and my foot still is a perfect fit there. I think when Dave comes home I'll measure his and mine and even Cooper's feet. Who knows when we may need to know that information!? Have a great Day!
Patsy



Feet

Big Feet
Little Feet
Nasty; stinky; scaly feet

Dancing feet
Pacing feet
Her feet; his feet; yours and My feet

Stomping feet
Running feet
Hopping ; skipping; Bare feet.

Feet! Feet! Feet!

Written By: Patricia Sawyer
1-23-2009