Daily Archives: September 1, 2013

The Simple Woman’s Daybook: September 1, 2013

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Simple Woman's Daybook

FOR TODAY September 1, 2013

Outside my window… dark. It was a warm day though.

I am thinking… about all the stuff that has to be done around the house.

I am thankful… for the 5 minute downpour last night. I enjoyed the “after the rain” scent for the first time in probably 6 months. (It has been really dry here this year which has contributed to the massive Rim fire 100 miles away.)

In the kitchen… I need to figure out a meal plan.

I am wearing… blue shirt from Old Navy and blue plaid boxers.

I am creating… entry outlines for the week.

I am going… to my parents’ house this weekend.

I am wondering… when I’ll actually desire to eat normally again.

I am reading… Sundays in America by Suzanne Strempek Shea. I finished Jenny Lawson’s book, Let’s Pretend This Never Happened, last night. It was absolutely lovely and irreverent and crossed so many lines but in completely charming ways.

I am hoping… my stomach settles down. I am no longer able to eat fast food.

I am looking forward to… Ladies’ Night Out.

I am learning life with having to test my sugars.

Around the house… *pulls the covers over my head*

I am pondering… too many things.

A favorite quote for today… ??In each of my friends there is something that only some other friend can fully bring out. By myself I am not large enough to call the whole man into activity; I want other lights than my own to show all his facets… Hence true Friendship is the least jealous of loves. Two friends delight to be joined by a third, and three by a fourth, if only the newcomer is qualified to become a real friend. They can then say, as the blessed souls say in Dante, “Here comes one who will augment our loves.” For in this love “to divide is not to take away.?? – C.S. Lewis

One of my favorite things… the smell of rain.

A few plans for the rest of the week: ABA therapy and Ladies’ Night Out on Wednesday, ABA therapy on Friday as well as heading to San Jose to see my parents.

Hosted by The Simple Woman’s Daybook

The Picture in My Header and What It Means To Me

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I’ve had a couple people comment on the picture in my header. It’s a cropped version of this picture:

Grandpa and I in 1984

The man on the left is my very beloved grandpa. I’m on the right and judging from the hair and that I’m wearing a dress, I think I’m 4 years old which would have made this Thanksgiving or Christmas of 1984. It’s been 7 1/2 years since he joined the Church Triumphant and I still really miss him. I was (and still am — death cannot cancel out love) a very beloved granddaughter and was the only granddaughter until my cousin Kristin was born a few days before I turned 12.

I think the hardest Christmas other than the one after he passed was in 2009 when I came to Washington for Christmas with Daniel. I really wish he could have known his great-grandfather who fought in World War II, didn’t finish college because of the war but still spent his life learning, had volumes of poetry memorized, learned how to use the Internet in his 80’s, would instant message me every afternoon until he ended up in the hospital to say “hi” and “ich liebe dich” (“I love you” in German), piloted planes for United Airlines for 30+ years, traveled the world in his retirement, raised 4 kids, provided funds for us for college, taught us all the necessary knots for tying up boats on the dock in Canada, announced the banns of my marriage in church in September 2000, was married to the love of his life for just short of 63 years (and gave me excellent role models in terms of enduring hardship as a couple), and took me to Midnight Mass almost every year from when I was 13 until I was married. He adopted all of the spouses of the kids and grandchildren as a member of the family, including those who later left the family through divorce.

When I needed a header and was going through the pictures on my laptop, this one jumped out at me because it makes me smile to think of this amazing man who would be turning 95 this year.

This poem was read at his interment in June 2006:

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds, ?? and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of ?? wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there,
I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air. . . .

Up, up the long, delirious burning blue
I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or ever eagle flew ??
And, while with silent, lifting mind I’ve trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.
?? “High Flight” by John Gillespie Magee, Jr