December 28th Inspiration as 2016 comes to an end.

Life is an opportunity, benefit from it.

Life is beauty, admire it.

Life is a dream, realize it.

Life is a challenge, meet it.

Life is a duty, complete it.

Life is a game, play it.

Life is a promise, fulfill it.

Life is sorrow, overcome it.

Life is a song, sing it.

Life is a struggle, accept it.

Life is a tragedy, confront it.

Life is an adventure, dare it.

Life is luck, make it.

Life is too precious, do not destroy it.

Life is life, fight for it.

--------------Mother Teresa

The Week Before Christmas

Tis the week before Christmas and all thru the house
not a creature was stirring except one little mouse.
He peeked at me from under the pantry door
and startled me so much, my jaw dropped to the floor.
I ran down the hall to my sleeping spouse
shook him awake with the words "there's a mouse in the house!"
He went to the kitchen with a grumble and complaint
saying if I had seen a mouse I would be in a dead faint.
15 minutes later, he called out my name,
"Ellen, I caught the mouse. So what's the plan for this game?"
My answer to him was loud and clear,
"pick that thing up and get it out of here!"
"It's cold and snowy outside, I'll do it later.  I'm going back to bed!"
"I will not share my house with that mouse, alive or dead!"
So holding the mouse by the tail as it hung from the trap,
he tossed it out the door into the snow like a good chap.
Back to bed we went all cozy and warm
and soon went to sleep until the morn.
At breakfast we sat with hot coffee in hand
when my hubby said, "you know I don't understand.
It has been my experience that if there's one mouse there's more."
My eyes went immediately to the pantry door.
He smiled and said, "I was only teasing you, hun."
I smiled back and replied, "payback has just begun."

                                                         MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

In Rememberance of Mom

Today is my mom's birthday and although she has passed away, I still celebrate it in a small way.  Christmas was not my mom's favorite holiday, it was my dad's.  When he passed away, my mom pretty much stopped with all the decorating and cooking that went with the holiday.  So with her birthday so close to Christmas and her being so far away from me, I would send her a large poinsettia plant as a birthday present.  She would use this as a substitute for a Christmas tree.  After my mom passed away, it was hard for me to remember her and her birthday without a great deal of sadness.  My husband, in order to make it easier on me, continued the tradition of the poinsettia plant on her birthday by getting me one.  Having that beautiful plant with its large red blooms and green leaves on my dining table makes me feel as if mom is here with me on her birthday once more.

Giving Tuesday 11/29/2016

It is "Giving Tuesday".  In honor of this day, I want to share two things my husband and I did today.  These were not big events in the grand scheme of things, but for my husband and I it was the idea that we might have brightened someone's day.

Before we had left for my doctor's appt. I was cleaning out my wallet and I came across 4 $25 gift cards for Starbucks.  Now in order to understand my story you need to know that the Starbucks in my city is a good half hour away.  I don't get in there as often as I would like.  The gift cards had been given to me when I was teaching school because every parent knew that I loved my coffee especially my vanilla cappucinos.  I was looking at the cards and thought to myself how they were going to waste.  I decided I needed to give them to someone who could use them.  There is a Starbucks on the campus of our university and I figured that college students would be able to use the cards more than me.  I took the cards to an organization that works with the students.  I asked them to give them out to the first 4 students who came in the door and there was no need to tell them who donated them. 

Then my husband and I went to the doctor.  As is his habit, he dropped me off in front of the medical building and went to park the car.  I sat on a bench to wait for him.  He was walking toward me when I noticed he stopped and walked over to a woman who was struggling to get her walker in the trunk of her car.  They spoke for a moment and then my husband picked up the walker, folded it up and placed it in the trunk.  However, from the struggling he was doing, the walker was not going in as easily as he thought.  He adjusted things in the trunk and tried again....nope.  He turned the walker another way and tried again...nope.  Finally, he gave up and put the walker in the back seat of the woman's car.  She shook his hand and thanked him before getting into the car and leaving.  He walked back to me with a big smile on his face.

Well, winter has finally made its appearance.  After having a November with temperatures in the 50s and 60s with no snow in sight, I awoke this morning to this.  Now I see winter as a half good, half bad thing.  The first snow of winter is very pretty, very calming (and goodness knows, we need calming after the recent presidential election).  But for me, this first sign of winter is only the beginning of a season which will last till April.  A season of cold, wet and gloomy hibernation.  Does it sound like I don't like winter?  You're right!