How Did This Happen?

Happy Birthday Dear Baby! Happy Birthday To You!

Now What?

I'm at a place in the garden where I'm out on a limb like our friend, Phoebis philea. Let's just call her Phoebe for short. Like Phoebe, I've done all i can do this summer and there seems to be no where to go. I've gardened all my life and have been interested in gardening all my life. At the age of seven I was begging for space in my parents yard for a garden to grow tomatoes. Popi, who is an everything in it's place, everything linear and symmetrical man, banished me to the alley full of nothing but oyster shells. I remember his lecture about the benefits of sand and oyster shells vs a plot in the well-tended yard. At the age of seven it was clear to me that he was full of compost. Undaunted, I did the best I could with what i was given and we had a stellar tomato crop that year. I don't remember harvesting or eating tomatoes or any other details regarding the situation. I do remember vividly however, how shocked Popi was. Sweet, sweet tomato revenge!


Gardeners are like that. If any one can make chicken soup from chicken poop (or in our household, horse poop) it's a gardener. I admit though, having spent my formative years in Portland, Oregon has posed a significant challenge for me. After 50 years of stubbornness I finally surrendered to a terrible tropical truth. I can't grow lilacs so I grow crepe myrtle which kind of looks like a lilac. I can't grow cherry trees so I grow Surinam cherries. I can't grow apples so I grow Myers Lemons. I finally surrendered. It was a truly, terrifying moment in my life.

I keep looking over my shoulders for the flying monkeys.

It's now too hot do any gardening so I'm at a standstill. I'm sure there are hardy souls out there digging but not me. In our state the summer months are planning months. For those of you who are non-gardeners there are two types of gardeners. Planners and Plunkers. I'm a plunker. I will move something around 5 times before it pleases my eye. Spending weeks planning is not in my nature but I'm slowly surrendering to that as well.

The exciting news this summer is that I've been approached by a few families who are interested in working with me to turn my little plot into a community effort. Working together, planting together and harvesting together with a group as adamant about forming community ties as I am sounds very exciting! We are getting together over pizza and seed catalogs soon. Hopefully, there are some non-plunkers in our gardening group that we can farm out the planning to! So maybe summer in the tropics isn't so bad after all. I think Phoebe would agree.

Shabby Rose Therapy Works Every Time

Sometimes you just have to treat yourself, toss the Excel budget work sheet to the wind and go have some fun. Worked today to make up my 4th of July "holiday" which wasn't much of a holiday when it is unpaid and POURING down rain the entire time. My fantasy of floating in the pool in our Big Lots blow up life boat, hiding from the children and sipping sweet tea never came to fruition but we did have our cook-out with our great, close-knit neighborhood community. Good food and good friends always brighten up the dreariest day. Even if the cookout becomes a "cook-in."

Picked up the kids after the last client and we ate out AND went thrifting. The teenager and the boy are avid thrifters. Could they survive in this household if they weren't? Probably not. The boy found a treasure trove of equipment I can use for work. Who needs an expensive medical equipment vendor when you have the boy and the Weigh n' Pay? I've been looking for a therapy ball for two of my preemies who have no clue as to their place in space and here comes the boy hop, hop, hopping past me on one. He found a sit n' spin for my autistic clients. How does he do that?

The teenager (who is still quite wobbly today) headed straight for the books. Her passion.

I found shabby treasures. Shabby is by far my favorite decorating style: The 12 piece or more china sets were 50% off so this set cost me $5.00 for 6 dinner plates, a serving platter, 5 salad bowls and a large serving bowl. I love roses.


The last shabby sheet I found at the weigh n' pay for about 40 cents, I sold on e-bay for around $38.00. I love roses and I'm keeping this one:


A somewhat smelly, vintage, cabbage rose bedspread. This is so going in the shabby chic, vintage pink room I'm designing in my head. I think I had one like this in the 80's but I traded it for a juicer. I still have the juicer. Comes in handy when the lemon tree is spitting out bushels of lemons.


This was tucked away in the Hospice Thrift Store for $1.00 and is so going to be a shabby pink pillow some day. I am such a sucker for someone else's embroidery. Why was it discarded? So much work went in to this one and did I mention I love roses? I have to admit, though, I'm not exactly sure just what this is supposed to be...is the blob on the bottom a quilt?

Ah, the mystery of discarded treasures! It doesn't get any better than this.

No More Lucky Charms For You Bubba...

It's been a rough day. When I went in to wake up the teenager for an appointment this morning she was barely responsive obviously having had a big bad seizure in her sleep. When she was finally able to walk hours later she had no idea where she was going or what she was doing. Even the boy was sad and said, "Mom she's really confused isn't she?" Fortunately, I recently hooked up with a new pediatric neurologist thanks to some nurse friends of mine. He likes his patients to e-mail him with progress and/or problems so we've been back and forth all day via e-mail. He decided to double her evening dose of seizure medication. Hopefully, this will take care of it.

In my attempt to garden in the heat and humidity yesterday I had a 3rd Meniere's attack in 2 weeks. What a drag.

Today there are two grouchy, postictal folk in our family weaving around the house. Talk about needing a good laugh.

Fortunately, a friend of mine posted a video today on Facebook that did make me laugh. Out. Loud. I'm not sure why the double rainbow in my front yard did not elicit in me a response like our little leprechaun friend has regarding the double rainbow in his front yard.

It was pretty but...

Orgasmic? Um. No.

Maybe if I had any hormones left? Um. No. Perhaps Double Rainbow Man has eaten one too many shrooms from his "front yard?" No matter. He made me smile.

Treat yourself to the entire video for the full effect. And BTW, Double Rainbow Man, I'll have what your having.

Ever Wonder What Other Parents Think About Parenting?

-Raising kids is part joy and part guerrilla warfare.
Ed Asner

-I figure that if the children are alive when I get home, I've done my job.
Roseanne Barr

-Never raise your hand to your kids. It leaves your groin unprotected.
Red Buttons

-I am not allowed to sing, dance, laugh or wear short skirts. Having a teenage daughter is like living with the Taliban Author Kathy Lette

-Children today are tyrants. They contradict their parents, gobble their food, and tyrannize their teachers. Socrates

-The truth is that parents are not really interested in justice. They just want quiet. Bill Cosby

-We spend the first twelve months of our children's lives teaching them to walk and talk and the next twelve telling them to sit down and shut up.
-Most children threaten at times to run away from home. This is the only thing that keeps some parents going. Phyllis Diller

-No matter how calmly you try to referee, parenting will eventually produce bizarre behavior and I'm not talking about the kids. Bill Cosby

-A child is a curly dimpled lunatic.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

-A two-year old is kind of like having a blender, but you don't have a top for it.
Jerry Seinfeld

-Mothers are all slightly insane. J.D. Salinger

-If evolution really works, how come mothers only have two hands? Milton Berle

-You can learn many things from children. How much patience you have, for instance. Franklin P. Jones

-When my kids become wild and unruly, I use a nice safe playpen. When they're finished, I climb out. Erma Bombeck

Feel better? I know I do.

And The Winner Of Anne Elizabeth's Diary Is....

Congratulations to the winner of our very first give-away:

of 3 Pretty Girls blog fame!

Your book is on the way and I know 3 pretty girls who might enjoy it. Well, 4 pretty girls if you count Mom!

Happy Anniversary Dr. Not-Very-Nice!

I have to pause and reflect when I see familiar summer scenes such as the ones above, and remember the lovely orthopedic physician who after the boy's first femur fracture stated, "How did this kid really break his leg? He doesn't walk and he NEVER will." You were partially right, Dr. Not-Very-Nice. He doesn't walk. He flies.

This one is for you: