Saturday--The Day Before Mother's Day

The high today was 62 degrees

Had to turn the furnace back on yesterday evening--it was 38 degrees outside when I went to bed.  When I woke up this morning, it was 41.

Buddy enjoying the newly cleaned couch.

This cat is as big as some dogs!!!

Got my annuals out on the porch, still in their flats--they are "hardening off"--and I will plant them probably next Wednesday or Friday--I don't know.  Waiting for any chance of a late frost to pass and the temps to rise a bit.  They cost me $100.00 and I can't afford a crop failure.  I was looking in my "garden file folder" and this is the least I have spent.  Of course, I haven't bought anything in the last three years, so--I guess I have saved money?  That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Here they are for the night--snuggled under an old mattress pad.

Apparently squirrels like grape jelly--who knew?  One jumped onto my Baltimore Oriole feeder last evening and when I went out to cover the plants, I found the whole thing laying on the ground.  I put it up on the porch and this morning--the grape jelly is gone.  The saucer licked clean.  I guess I need to sprinkle a bit of squirrel repellent that I use in my bird feed on the jelly?  I guess he doesn't like oranges.

I feels so good to walk across my living room in bare feet.  The carpet feels nice and soft, nice all crunchy like it did before the cleaning.  I wish I could afford to get new carpet.  Then the question arises, where would I put all my furniture to put down new carpet?  Would I have to haul it all out into the driveway?  I guess, I would empty one room, they would lay the carpet, then I would put the furniture back in that room and haul it out of the next room into that one and on and on?  Well--that's not going to happen is it?  So--onward we go.

Now these next pictures are stupid, but I wanted you to see that I FINALLY found a pair of jeans that fit my skinny behind, thighs and legs.  They are size 12's.  I haven't worn a 12 since I was---12?  Anyway, try and see the way they fit and ignore anything else going on in the pix.

Well--you can't tell in this pix, can you.

(One should wash their bathroom mirror)

See--no pooching out on the side, like clown pants.

Don't even ask how I got my leg up on the vanity.  See how nice they

fit in the thigh and leg?  My word--that leg is skinny!!!

I look like an apple with skinny "cinnamon" sticks for arms and legs.

These pix might give you an insight to why I have been called "Chicken Legs" all my life?  Try not to notice the big shirt I have on--it is thermal and I am wearing it today because....it is cold!

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I had a visitor to the bird feeder today--no, not a Baltimore Oriole, but Mr. Red Breasted Grosbeak.  I have seen him before, but only this time, got a picture of him.

I gotta quit taking pictures through my screen!!

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Pammie--my oldest daughter--my sweet child that I used to call "Sunshine" when she was little because she was always happy--always smiling.  Pammie with the new toothies and smile.  The one who lives on the farm where I use too.  Pammie--as I look at her life, it is just like mine was, at a time--twenty years ago.  She is exactly 20 years younger then me and our lives seem to be alike--which makes me sad because 20 years ago, I was in a real mess.  Pammie too, has been in a mess for the last 15 years or so. She had a man living with her--one she had known in high school.  They re-met a couple years after her divorce.  None of us in the family ever liked him all that well--even though I had known him as a kid.

Over the years, it has gotten progressively worse and for the last three years, practically intolerable for Pammie.  The man got custody of his grandson about three years ago and Pammie has been a lot of help in bringing up this little boy--he is now very well mannered.  The man is one of those kinds that picks up "junk"--old cars, trucks--he is going to fix them and sell them.  Of course, he never does.  They sit around the field and yards of that beautiful farm and, excuse the expression--the place looks like white trash lives there--hillbillies--cars and trucks up on cement blocks, old tires piled up along the edge of the garage, a boat, a motor home--all sitting there rusting out.  

He smokes--a lot.  Pammie asked him in March to smoke outside.  The reason being, he has neuropathy in his hands and he drops the lit cigarettes on the carpeting.  She works for youngest daughter Jennifer, and stays the night down at Jen's for most of the week.  

I have been praying that Pammie would find the strength to ask him to leave.  I know, she cares for the grandson and the grandson would have to leave too, but................I have been asking God to please find a way to fix things so that Pammie can once again, enjoy her life and her home.

Pammie just called and asked if she could pick me up tomorrow after church--we are going into Brighton to meet Karen, her son Stephen (who just finished his first year at MSU) and daughter Madeleine (the ballet dancer.) for lunch.  Pammie--who wanted my heavy bedspread that I washed the other day.

Pammie said, "I have something to tell you before you hear it from someone else.  I have asked "G" to leave. He has been approved for a home loan at the bank and he is looking for a place for him and "D" to live in.  I just couldn't take it anymore, Momma!"

I said to her, "You have just given me the best Mother's Day gift ever!"

"I know you were worried about me.  I know the whole family was worried about me.  I'm going to be all right, Momma.  It just got to be constant fighting and yelling.  It wasn't good for the little boy, for "G" and for me.  I am just so anxious to be happy again and living a good life with nobody yelling at me and tearing down my self esteem all the time."  Then she laughed and I could hear the relief in her voice.

Yes--it is going to be difficult for her to maintain everything on her own--financially.  But she does own the farm, she rents the fields and gets revenue from that for her property taxes.  She has been making it on her own for the last few years--when she wasn't giving money to him to help him.

Pammie doesn't fall far from the Mother Tree--she and I both have the problem of thinking we can help people (men) and end up getting used and losing our money in the process.

Of course, she has sworn off ALL MEN--she said a few words I won't repeat here about men--and I couldn't agree with her more, LOL.  I told her not to give up entirely because someday, she just might meet a Fred!!!

I hung up the phone and just wept--then shouted--then laughed--then called Pearl and told her!  We talk about our daughter's and their problems all the time, so she is well acquainted with Pam's problem life.

She yelled, "YAHOO!  Praise God!"

I wish Fred knew--he and Pam had a special relationship and he would be so very, very happy right now!!!

I am one happy Momma!!!