I Admire People Who....

I see out jogging when I think it's too cold even in the basement for me to go down to use my treadmill.

Say they are going to the mall to just look around

and actually just look around.

Know that there is always something new to learn.

Say that they want to lose some weight and then lose some weight.

Realize there are times when it is okay to let someone do more for
 you than you can ever possibly repay.

Have time and money and are willing to share both.

Are over 15 years old and can still ride a Tilt-A-Whirl
without getting sick.

Are really positive about their political convictions
and really know why they are.

Don't take all the blame or all the credit for
the outcomes in their childrens lives.

Get up an hour or two early in the morning
so they can go workout.

Who do you admire?

It's All Good

All is right with the world when you can sleep

 with a Dora the Explorer sprinkler can

I was given an award, my one an only,  from Sonia at Gusty Writer. It is the Heart of a Dragon award and I was, of course, very surprised and pleased to receive it from Sonia, gutsy writer that she is.

The Heart of a Dragon Award is a

special award for the blogger who

inspires you and/or others to go

above and beyond or the blogger

who helps keep us all connected.

Here are the rules.
1. Post the award on your site with a link to the person who gave it to you.
2. Pass it on to the blogger(s) who inspire you and list why they are receiving the award.
3. Post a comment on their blog.

I knew immediately that I wanted to offer this award to Betty at A Glimpse into Midlife. She is an awsome blogger friend and she more than fulfills the requisites of the award. She is authentic and insightful. She has encouraged me and tutored me, always going above and beyond. Please visit her today.

Six Word Saturday

I can't remember all my passwords

Six Word Saturday from  http://www.showmyface.com/

How Old Would You Be.....

How Old Would You Be If You Didn't Know How Old you Are?

I don't claim that this is an original question, but I find it to be an interesting one. It came up in a conversations with friends recently and I have been wondering about it since. I talk a lot about how much I love being a grandmother, but I sometimes find it hard to believe that I am actually old enough to have been a grandmother for nine years this month. I've already outlived my mother by nearly a dozen years, and because she died at 51,  there was a time when I'm sure I never expected to reach the age I am now. 

I feel lucky that, as yet, there's not much that I want to do that I can't do because of my age. As far as how old I feel, there are times when it comes to things like being as mature as I should be about some things I feel like I am about 12. When it comes to my attitude about some other things, like little girls wearing sexy clothes or teenage boys wearing their pants around their hips with their underwear showing, I'm probably nearer to 70.

The common thing that we all said in my conversation with my friends was that we all still feel like we have always felt on the inside. The outside, however, has it's own tale to tell. Sometimes when I am shopping with my daughters and we pass a mirror in a store, I feel a little shocked that I actually look older than they look.

I can't help thinking that doing our best to stay young on the inside can't be anything but a benefit to the outside of ourselves. These people say it well:

Beautiful young people are accidents of nature, but beautiful old people are works of art.
 Eleanor Roosevelt

And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years.

      Abraham Lincoln

There is still no cure for the common birthday.

                                                   John Glenn

If wrinkles must be written upon our brows, let them not be written upon the heart.

The spirit shoul never grow old.

        John Kenneth Galbraith

Age is an issue of mind over matter, if you don't mind, it doesn't matter.
    Mark Twain

You can judge your age by the amount of pain you feel when you come into contact with a new idea.

 Pearl Buck

I can honestly and maybe gratuitously say that I feel young for my age, at least young at heart.

How old would you be if you didn't know how old your are?

I Hope You Dance

When my first grandchild was born nine years ago this month the song I Hope You Dance, sung by Lee Ann Womack and written by Mark D. Sanders was very popular. It had been released in May and as we awaited the birth over the summer it became a sort of theme song of our hopes for this new life that was coming into our family. I have gone back to the lyrics of this song with the birth of each of my other grandchildren and every time I hear it I revive these hopes for each of them.

I hope you never lose your sense of wonder

You get your fill to eat

But always keep that hunger

May your never take one single breath for granted

God forbid love ever leave you empty handed

I hope you still feel small

When you stand beside the ocean

Whenever one door closes, I hope one more opens

Promise me that you'll give faith a fighting chance

And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance

I hope you dance

I hope you dance

I hope you never fear those mountains in the distance

Never settle for the path of least resistance

Living might mean taking chances

But they're worth taking

Loving might be a mistake

But it's worth making

Don't let some hell bent heart leave you bitter

When you come close to selling out, reconsider

Give the heavens above more than just a passing glance

And when you get the choice to sit it our or dance

I hope your dance

I hope you dance

I still have these hopes for my grandchildren, and I think the words of the song also offer pretty good advise to those of us in the grandmother years of our lives.

Dear Robert, or A Postscript to My Previous Post

In saying Dear Robert I don't mean Robert, you are so dear to me. I mean Dear Robert in a Dear John sort of way, as in Dear Robert, You're Fired! Robert is Doc's main maintenance guy, and was the one that was here checking our furnace when I got home last night. That's the furnace that was "all checked out" last night and the furnace that quit working during the night, on the coldest night of the new season....about 26 degrees. For those of you who operate in Celsius, that's brrr cold, below freezing.

Robert could be the poster child for the saying "Jack of all trades, but master of none." He knows how to do a  lot of things, but often just doesn't quite finish the job. He did some paint touch-up last night also, but left the open paint can on the floor and the dirty paint brush in the sink. In the past, he has worked on the water heater, but forgotten to actually turn it on before leaving. There's always a tool left under the sink after he has worked on the plumbing. Sometimes when he starts a job he will leave to go get a part or a tool and not show up again for a week or so.

On the other hand, after an early call from us this morning (with teeth chattering) he was here by 7 a.m. asking why we didn't call him at midnight when we realized the furnace wasn't working. He'll climb the tallest ladder to replace light fixtures or even bulbs in our very high ceilings. He will search all day to find  the exact match for an unusual bulb in the fixture above the dining room table. There's never a job he says no to. He likes Doc a lot and will do anything for him.

So, I guess he's not really fired, just on a short probation.

Oh, and Robert says the problem was with the thermostat, not the furnace. Just a coincidence? I wonder.

This Can't Be A Good Thing

I'm writing about the weather, which some may consider not a good thing, but I am off work Friday and Monday, so I may be feeling a little lazy. On the other hand, I live in the Rocky Mountain West and we take our weather pretty seriously here, so when I saw these clouds coming over the mountains this evening my first thought was "This can't be a good thing".

I love summer, but where I live, as they say about all good things, it has to end. The temperatures going from the 80s yesterday to the 50s today, finding one of Doc's guys here checking the furnace when I got home, and seeing these clouds coming over the mountains tell my that my summer is over.

I think I'll go make some chili.