Holy Cow! Holy Week Already?

OK, is it me, or is time zipping by at greater than Scotty's Maximum Warp Speed? I mean, I swear it seems like we were just getting ready to open Christmas presents a couple of weeks ago. Let's not even stop our discussion of speed/time with the issue of months and weeks. My first born, Chip, turned 29 yesterday...WTH? No, seriously? How is this possible? I mean, I haven't been in any type of vacuum, and have suffered no traumatic brain injury, and have been there to celebrate every one of his previous 28 birthdays but, I mean, there have really been 29?

My mom and I were discussing this whole issue of time/speed/age etc the other day. Mom, I should mention is a very young(ish) 77 years old. Physically and mentally, she is mostly doing very well. Sure, she has some expected aches and pains, but mostly, she is in good shape. Her memory, in fact, is often times better than mine. (Of course I attribute my memory lapses on a selective "review, evaluate, purge and dump" of non-essential information). At any rate, she says that she doesn't feel her age, or, what she always thought people felt like at 77.  I know exactly what she means. When my sons and their friends talk about going out dancing, or having drinks at a couple of clubs or enjoying some of the activities that I did at their age, I still want to go. What the hell happened? Honestly, I feel it especially, when we are at A&M. I feel the same way I did as a student; OK, except that I'm not hurrying to class and am not slightly hung over...just saying. That brings up another fact, I don't drink very much or very often these days. Not for any reason, other than, I just don't. Maybe its age or maybe I'm just out of practice but, now, after about two glasses of wine, I am buzzed! WTH? Oh well...

Back to the accelerated rate of time passing...Here in S. Central Texas, our fall, winter and spring seasons only last for about 10 days each, so, it is extremely difficult to mark the passage of time by the changing of the seasons. In fact, if you read a few earlier posts, you'll remember Haime and I were sharing a picnic on the beach in January and I mowed our lawn (OK, weeds) for the first time in February. But really, Holy Week begins this Sunday? WOW!!!

Haime and I are Catholics, but you already knew that. For all Christians, the holiest week of the year is the week between Palm Sunday, (this weekend), and Easter. Haime and I have been watching a mini-series on the "History channel," entitled "The Bible." It airs on Sunday evenings and each episode is run again on Wednesdays if you missed the Sunday airing. So far, we have travelled back to God's promise to Abraham, Moses' parting of the Red Sea, Daniel surviving the Lions, Jesus' birth and John's beheading. The episode that airs Sunday, I believe will include Jesus' triumphant welcome into Jerusalem, (which is what we celebrate on Palm Sunday), and His Crucifixion, death and possibly His resurrection (though, it seems fitting that His resurrection may be broadcast on Easter). Each episode is about two hours in length and I believe there are to be a total of 10 episodes. The series is well done and it certainly holds your attention. It is terribly violent. However, if you read much of the Bible, it is violent, there is no getting around that. If you haven't had the opportunity to watch it, this Sunday is a great time to begin.   

Time passes, kids grow, we all age (if we're lucky). So, as we prepare to celebrate Easter in a little over a week, remember, Jesus is the reason for this season too. We'll hunt eggs and decorate Easter baskets and eat ham and spring veggies, but we'll start our day with mass at sunrise and give praise to God for His generous bounty and to thank Him for preparing a place for us.

Happy Easter, my friends, Haime and I love you all.

TTFN,

Lois

St. Paddy's Day is done...

My niece, Amanda made
Leprechaun cupcakes for
the party--SO cute and yummy too!

We survived another "wearin o'the green!" Haime and I host a small St. Paddy's Day party most years. We both love spring and both claim to have Irish ancestors, so St. Paddy's Day is a great excuse for a party. In addition to our wonderful friends and one of my sisters and brother-in-law and my mom, Chip and Mallory and Carter joined us this year, (Carter attended last years bash but Chip and Mallory partied with some of their friends). Unfortunately, Reece had to work. Haime and I really enjoy spending time with the kids. We are so blessed that they are all living relatively close to us. They have grown to be wonderful young adults and make us very proud. We enjoyed fish and shrimp and grilled chicken (for those who don't care for or can't eat fish) and all the trimmings, and of course, Guinness, Harps and Smithwicks.

I refer to "surviving" because another reason we host this party is because it forces us to do a bit of spring cleaning. We readied the yard and gardens, transplanted some perennials to new beds and brought in a few new annuals. We hauled in potting soil, fertilizer and mulch and hauled out limbs and bags (and bags and bags and bags) of weeds. We pulled out the extension ladder to clean the windows on the second story (yeah, I know...) and Haime FINALLY cleaned out his closet. Obviously a lot of what we did had nothing to do with the party, we just kinda got carried away!

After having survived getting our yard ready for the season, tomorrow I'm starting on my mother's yard. Hers is going to involve everything ours did plus much more chain saw action and much more "haul aways." You gotta love spring cleaning!

"Spring is in the air..."

"Spring is in the air..."

When I was a kid, I thought my father was incredibly talented, (as I grew-up, I realized how true that was). The specific talent to which I am referring here, is his ability to take nearly any word or phrase that you'd give him, and have him sing a song with that word or phrase therein. To be honest, he couldn't carry a tune in that proverbial bucket, however, what he lacked in ability, he more than made up for in enthusiasm and in practice. I seem to have inherited that talent to a small degree. In fact, if you've ever had a conversation with me, I may have mentioned, during the course of that conversation, "that reminds me of a song..." Now, depending on how much I trusted you, I may or may not have followed that up with said song. 

My reason for mentioning this is, if you look back over some of my earlier posts, you'll find that I have used snippets of lyrics or titles of songs as some of the titles of my posts. As I am typing this, there is an old song running through my brain with the title above, as a major theme. Unfortunately, try as I might, I cannot remember much of the song and have no idea who wrote or performed it. When I Googled the lyrics, Terry Jacks' "Season's in the Sun" was the most common result and that's not what I'm thinking of...oh well, it'll probably come to me as soon as I publish this. 

At any rate, this post is not about spring songs...its about spring. You know, so many things in my life were so very different when I was reporting to an office for work than they are now that I am working at being retired. When I was teaching or even as a campus administrator, we knew spring was in the air based on children's behaviors and by the much needed and eagerly anticipated "Spring Break." When I moved to the district level, the indicators for spring were much more a "need for a break." Now, the approaching spring is something I feel in my being. Yes, I know that sounds weird, but hear me out, (or should that be, continue reading????). It's almost like the "nesting" behaviors so many people acknowledge in pregnant women. I can feel the changing seasons. Maybe because I am no longer strictly bound by dates on a calendar, I am more aware of time. Perhaps its my ancestral agrarian roots which are making me more a-tuned to such things (or, maybe its just inhaling too much fertilizer,) either way, spring is definitely in the air! 

  My flower and veggie beds are all readied and some are planted. Two of the veggie beds (as noted on the photo above) have all had soil turned and amended but are not yet planted. The bed with the antique plow and the smaller one to its right have been planted with herbs, egg-plant, yellow bell peppers and onions. Tomatoes will go in one of the back beds and I'm thinking of adding a trellis of some type down the length and in the center of the other bed for some cucumbers and possibly some squash to climb.  I've added two fruit trees, a peach and a pear, to another part of my garden and transplanted two orange trees that were previously kept in large pots.

Speaking of my roots, I am basically a combination of German (with some Austrian-(according to my grandfather, his family migrated from Austria, unfortunately, especially to him, the part of the world where they actually originated, is now part of Czechoslovakia)) and Anglican (my father's family has been in the US for a much longer time and they are much harder to trace back to a specific country of origin. My father just put all of the (current and former) British-ruled countries together when he spoke of our ancestry, mostly because he had no idea). As a result, I generally tell folks that I'm German and Scotch-Irish, it tends to explain my fondness for a good party! In October, we celebrated my Germanic roots with an "Oktoberfest" and this weekend, we'll celebrate the Celtic side on St. Patty's Day. There will be Guinness and potatoes but more importantly, good friends, good stories and good memories will be made. All are welcomed so don't hesitate to dress yourself in you greenest finery and come join the fun!