Your Parent's Parents.

As it happens, I have fond memories of both sets of my grandparents.

One used to bring us Timbits and licorice nearly every week, and we still have the glass jar of Splenda he used in his coffee, long dusty and unused.

The other side always seemed to have a more careful approach to grand-parenting; sleepovers where we had snacks of chips, precisely five M&M's a piece, after which we got to bed on time.

Since there was never any mutual annoyance between the grandparents and myself, I was never required to look past their most obvious good qualities and dig deep for the gold. Perhaps what I never expected was when I became an adult, to discover them all over again as new, surprising, interesting...people.

And now, I'm amazed to see my grandmother doing crossword puzzles while she listens to the radio and to discover that we have a mutual fondness for Johnny Cash. Funny, buy we laugh at the same things in a way I don't remember at those sleepovers.

Now I realize another grandparent as a woman and personality, far more determined than any other person I have met. Yet she needs affirmation, and we say "I love you" in a way we never used to.

And I see the love of more than a grandfather, but a man and husband, who overcomes his natural quiet and comes to the rescue when she's forgotten.

If nothing else, human beings are the most complicated combinations you will find of character contradictions and deep seated propensities.

It appears that grandparents are the same...So love your grandparents. Love your elderly folk.

They are as special as they come.

~Olivia

Hard.

You know what?

 

Being single is hard.

 

You know what?
 

Being married is hard.

 

So is barrenness. So is having kids.

 

Working with your hands.

 

Working with your creativity.

 

Loving the lovely when they make you feel inadequate.

 

Loving the unlovable, when they push back your best efforts.

So.

 

"...walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace."

 

 

 

~Liv

What Liv Learned April 2014

1. I always thought picture books were a mainly 20th century invention. It appears like I'm off however, as the first children's book was published sometime in the 1600's and called Orbis Pictus by John Amos Comenius. Very cool!


2. The word blog is actually slang for web log. Which sounds so quaint that I think I'll start saying it for fun.

3. I used to think that the silky white scarves of army pilots (think Colonel Klink in Hogan's Heroes) were simply a fashion statement. Apparently (and honestly, they ARE men so...) there is a non-aesthetic reason. While in flight, pilots were constantly swivelling their heads back and forth to scan the skies and the scarf evidently protected their necks from the chafing of leather or wool.

4. Always fascinated by a mystery and hopeful for happy endings, I was happy to read this month that Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid were never officially recorded as dead. Furthermore, there is (thin) reasonable doubt whether they were actually buried in South America.

So I can continue with my life, convinced that they didn't run out of a tight spot to their deaths, cracking jokes and coats flying. They probably became potato farmers, right?

Take that, movie.

5.  When classifying seeds or plants (you know, when you do that) here are some things to remember.
If they are dicots, they have two original sprouting leaves, and the veins of the leaf are netted. If it is a monocot, there is one sprouting leaf, and parallel veins.

You just never know when you might need to know this! (I promise.)

6. This month, I also brushed up on my rusty super hero knowledge. You see, the X Men are like a sub-group of super heroes...and each super heroes' world is not isolated from the others like I thought it was previously.

I still have a lot to learn though. I mean, do you capitalize super hero? And is it one word or two?



I think warmer weather is staying, guys! Enjoy this Spring life, OK?

~Liv

A quick word...

This week I am part of a flash fiction ring around the rosie deal - where you post your prompted writing and get (as well as give) feedback.

So for those of you who show up here, looking for my brain's ditherings on the week's challenge...you can follow the link.

Thank you in advance!

~Olivia

Lessons Millie Learned in April 2014

1. Antique manure spreaders are self-propelled. Just pull it with a horse, truck, or tractor and the wheels make the spreading apparatus turn and fling manure far afield. Equally amazing is the fact that there are YouTube videos concerning manure spreading.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNgrtOQnrdc

2. I also learned about the Waldensians - a pre-Reformation group, founded by Peter Waldo, that tended to get pushed off of cliffs by angry Roman Catholics.

3. I learned how to make a hobby horse using a sock, stick, and some yarn. Unfortunately, my tutorial link went AWOL so I can not share with you.

4. It's not a good idea to experiment with back road shortcuts during the spring time. We came precariously close to learning that lesson the hard way.

5. A good night's sleep makes pretty much everything better.

6. The horror of war is not that humans are dying but that humans are killing each other.

7. "Juggernaut" is a British term for a large truck.

8. It just feels so good to buy new clothes for the first time in six months.

9. On the other hand, it makes my bank account weep.

10. It's possible for me to keep a journal faithfully for five months in a row. Wonder of wonders!

And that's all for now folks.

- Millie