The Methren

I love that term--it was coined by my niece Crystal years ago. She and her mom, (my sister Martie, for those of you who don't have my family tree committed to memory yet) were at my house. I don't remember exactly what happened, but I must have yelled at someone's kid (not mine). Crystal said, "I hate this, even when Mom's not around, one of them always is--they're like, you know, the Methren!" We are, and proud of it! So last week, a horrible thing happened. Craig Eidson, Amber and Crystal and Pearl's dad died. Although he and Martie are no longer married, it was still devastating. Strange, how at a time like that, you want to just rush in and fix everything. Then you do rush in, and of course, you can't fix it. You can just cry with them. But one small thing we did get to do was bring food and help clean the apartment where Craig and Crystal were living. I just hope that all the love we felt doing that will just stick to the walls and the doors and the windows and everything. I have this picture on my phone now and every time I look at it I say a prayer for them all.
I guess it's a mom thing.

Fireworks and Parades!

Mother's Day is my favorite holiday. I didn't know this until the year John and all the kids forgot Mother's Day. I am sure I had acted like it was no big deal, and I probably thought it was no big deal. But that morning when it was business as usual, waking kids up, getting clothes and food ready, and starting out for church, I started to feel sorry for myself. I mentally listed all the things I did for my children, but still told myself, after all, I was glad to make that sacrifice. I would take the high road, and not even mention it; but it was challenging when my niece/godchild Erin came over early in the morning to give me a gift. Then at church all the mothers got corsages. After lunch (I made it and cleaned it up) a family we know dropped in. She told us how she had gotten breakfast in bed, and been taken out to lunch and "look at the pretty dress he bought me!" By this time I had lost any pretense of saintly sacrifice. I could hardly speak I was so mad! I managed to be polite (I think) but after they left, I gave John "the look." He really dug himself in then, saying "well ,you're not my mother!" (I am sure I had bought his mother's present!) Without saying another word, I got up and walked down the road, kids following and crying. Later, after everyone was sorry (including me) I decided that never again would I kid anyone that Mother's Day was not a big deal for me. It's not about money--it's the honor of the thing. One year--actually the year in question--John and the kids went and dug up some lilac shoots from an uninhabited farm nearby. They planted them on the yard along the road. Those lilacs are my windbreak now, and every Mother's Day I enjoy the pretty fragrant blooms and remind myself that, after all, a 100% saintly sacrificial mom would NOT prepare her children for the real world. If I have taught my children one thing, it is that Mother's Day should be fireworks and parades for mom! Or else!

Advantages to being 60

Advantages to being 60: (and I've just started!)

1. You can count on your fingers the number of years until you can retire. (Unless it gets changed)
2. Somehow you become an authority figure.
3. If you are a nurse, you can eat crabby doctors for lunch! I don't know how that translates into other professions.
4. Senior discount? Bring it on! I'm not proud.
5. "That time of the month" means nothing to you.
6. "Cool" and "Trendy"--see above! Wear ugly shoes, elastic waist pants (around your real waist!), be comfortable while younger, less confident friends feel the pinch! And NO one will ever have to see your belly button again!

Things I am NOT going to do when I retire.

1. Go far far away in the wintertime for a long long time. I've been waiting my whole life to stay home through a snowstorm without feeling guilty.
2. Stop working. But I might do something else. (Archeologist? Humor writer? Walmart greeter? Solitaire extraordinaire?)
3. Dye my hair*, get a facelift, or lie about my age. I've worked hard for these gray hairs and every wrinkle I have has a story. I'm not old--I'm seasoned! Actually, I have a feeling some of my octegenarian friends are laughing at this post thinking I have no idea what the big deal about 60 is. I know I worried all year before I turned 30, and it was no big deal at all!
4. Have a colonoscopy. (The movie I can stand to miss. I'll wait and buy the t-shirt--or sell popcorn for yours!)
5. Ditto mammograms. (eeu! What if there is a power failure? Or an earthquake?)

*Don't get me wrong, I have friends and family who color their hair and seem to carry it off very well. I just know I'd never keep it up. I'd be going around with my hair in stages all the time.