Where Does The Time Go? or It's The Little Things

Where does the time go?  Time flies when you're having fun. The older you get the faster time goes. All of these cliches are admittedly trite, but they express some truth about most of our lives....time does fly by. Sometime a week goes by and it seems like I was busy but didn't really do much of anything, certainly not anything to blog about. On the other hand, it is these little things that make up life and looking back I see that the privilege of and the joy in being able to do these little things is a pretty big thing.

Some of the little things I'm glad to be able to do......

Kids baseball......lots of kids baseball. Five of my seven grandkids will be playing some kind of baseball this summer. I don't make it to all the games, I don't make it to bad weather or far away games. I don't even think that I was at this game that my 10 year old grandson, Justin,  played recently, but I am glad to have lots of kids baseball games to go to.

Dog walks.....lots of dog walks no matter what the weather but especially nice right now with so many blooming trees and flowers.

A little Play Doh cookery with a 3 year old chef.

Learning something new. I have been taking Pickleball lessons (well, only two so far) but it is a lot more fun way to get some exercise than walking on the treadmill or using those machines at the gym so I think I will keep it up.

Some silly time before the start of a middle school play with two of my granddaughters.

Another saying that is trite but true......Little things mean a lot.

What kind of "little things" have made time fly by for you lately?

Pretty Girls and Silly Girls....A Fun Easter With Family

Lots of years of blogging means lots of years of the same family events coming around again and again. Since the main reason I started blogging was to help me record and remember family events and activities here I am again with another family Easter.

Pretty girls, almost 6 year old Anna and 6 year old EJ,

and silly girls, Hope, almost 12, giving her mom a lift. 

A selfie of me and my son, Rob.

Ej, Anna and Beck, 3, looking high and low for Easter eggs.

Whether you are 8 1/2 like Wil,

or almost 12 like Hope hunting for eggs is still fun, especially if you know there are a few golden eggs with some cash inside.

A little "crack the egg" game on the trampoline. I was just happy that no heads got cracked.

A minor injury required some attention,

but all's well that ends with a good meal.

Yes, it is much the same year after year but it is that sameness, that is the traditions of family meals, family fun and family pictures that is special to me.

Memories of The Bootlegger

Memories and the things that trigger them can be odd thing. I usually think I don't remember a great deal about my childhood and then I will see something that triggers a memory long buried. Such was the case when I recently saw a blue 1953 Chevrolet, the kind of car driven by the bootlegger that visited our house on Thursday nights when I was a young child. I have written about this before, but the recent sighting of a car like this brought these memories right to the front of my mind.

 I grew up in Oklahoma and when I was growing up Oklahoma was a "dry" state, meaning the sale and consumption of alcohol was prohibited by law. Nevertheless, my parents were nightly cocktail drinkers, which necessitated one of the more scary memories from my childhood, The Bootlegger.

He came from Missouri on some regular schedule always on a Thursday night. He was a big, fat man and I remember him huffing and puffing as he carried the cases of Jim Beam and Gilbey's Gin up our front steps.  I was scared to death of him.

He then went to the houses of  a few of our neighbors, delivering similar booty. After he left, my parents and their good friends from two houses down mixed and matched from their supply and were set until the next Thursday night visit from the bootlegger.

The backseat and the trunk of the Bootlegger's blue 1953 Chevrolet were filled with his wares. To this day his scary demeanor and his huffing and puffing as he carried the boxes to the door come back to me when I see a car like that.

I'm not sure why I was so afraid of the bootlegger or why I still have such vivid memories of him. It may be because even as a pretty young child I had a sense that there was something illicit about what he and my parents were doing. By the time I was a young teenager Oklahoma legalized the sale of alcohol and the bootlegger disappeared from my life, except when I see one of those cars.

Wednesday Hodgepodge

 To participate in Wednesday Hodgepodge visit Joyce here

1. April showers bring May flowers, or so the saying goes. When did you last 'shower' attention on someone or have attention 'showered' on you? Did you love it, or did all that attention make you squirm?

We have neighbors that we visit with in the evening from time to time. He is a very good host, always asking if he can get you something, freshen your drink, find a more comfortable chair and on and on. I sometimes feel a little "squirmy" from all the attention, like I have somehow let him down because I don't really need anything.

2. Share a favorite 'spring break' memory. Not talking about just the 'college spring break' thing, but any favorite spring break memory you'd like to share. Keep it family friendly please!  

A very family friendly memory is of a ski trip spring break in about 1979. It was a very fun trip until the last day when I fell on the ice in a parking lot and broke my tail bone. I had to lay in the back of the van on the trip home from Angel Fire, NM to Midland, TX., and it was about 6 weeks before I could walk right. I still get twinges in my tail bone if I sit in a hard chair for too long.

3. It's National Pecan Month...are you a fan? If so, what's your favorite dish that calls for pecans?

I am a fan of pecans. I like any kind of dessert with pecans, but I especially like chocolate chip cookies chock full of pecans. 

4.  'Put all your eggs in one basket', 'egg on your face', 'rotten egg', 'walk on eggshells', or 'a good egg'...which egg-spression could most recently be applied to your own life?

This is my favorite egg-spression.  I have it on a magnet on my refrigerator,  a gift from a friend many years ago. 

5.  In my experience___________________________________.

In my experience the best way to deal with getting older is to do it with a very good sense of humor.

6. What's a  favorite song with the word rain in its title or lyrics?

The first song that comes to mind is Gene Kelly's Singin' In The Rain, but if it counts Somewhere Over the Rainbow would be a favorite.

7. What does the word hope mean to you?

This one is easy for me.....since my oldest  granddaughter is named Hope. 

8.  Insert your own random thought here.

 Like so many I am very glad this past winter is at least mostly behind us.

It Is Time For Me To Find a New Favorite Show

I have mentioned here before that around the first of this year I got a bit obsessed with the British comedy/drama TV show Doc Martin. I have to admit that I have watched most of the episodes at least twice and a couple even more than that. I have recently decided that things have gone a little too far when I started thinking that people in my life look like the characters on the show.

First was my hairdresser who looked to me just like Louisa, the doc's love interest on the show.

Louisa played by Caroline Catz

Yesterday there was a woman on the machine next to me at the gym who looked so much like the doc's Aunt Ruth that I expected her to have a British accent.

Ruth played by Eileen Atkins

Last week at the dog park there was a man who was a doppelganger for Al Large, the shows hapless plumber/restaurateur. He was even wearing a knit cap.

Al played by Ian McNeice

It started getting a little scary when I decided that I looked a bit like the doc's mother, Margaret. She is a very evil mother.

Margaret, played by Claire Bloom

So far I haven't run into anyone that looks like Doc Martin so maybe I'm not too far gone.

Doc Martin played by Martin Clunes

In any case, I think it is definitely time for me to find a new favorite show before I go completely Bodmin (a phrase from the show meaning being a bit crazy or a bit of an oddball).

Any suggestions for a new favorite show?