40 Years

 What does forty years of marriage feel like?  Well I can tell you that it went by in a blink of the eye.  There are ups and downs. Things don’t always turn out as planned, but somehow we got through it.  There are dreams that had to be put on hold and then tossed aside as no longer realistic.  There were new dreams to be made that tried to fill the void that the old dreams left.  Don’t get me wrong they were good.  However nothing replaces the dreams of youth when everything was possible.  I have a few regrets but many, many more joys in life.  

Would I do it all over again? Yes, with one caveat.  Only with this man at my side. We did not always agree with the mind of an artist versus the mind of science and logic.  Although deep down our core values were the same.  

We were over joyed to have 2 beautiful and thoughtful children.  They are as different as night and day. They loved us and most importantly each other.  They learned to work together as only siblings can.  They did, in my opinion, grow up much too fast. In their opinion not fast enough. They were strong and confident enough to follow their own dreams and path in life.  I am so glad that they allowed us to be part of that life. It is a great privilege to be able to call them our children. They both took us on great adventures.  I think the adventures that they took us on were some of the best adventures in our lives.  

Life as newlyweds was awesome.  Then on to children. Then balancing our core family 4 was very time consuming.  Each child with their own diverse needs.  That was a very hectic period in our lives.  Then caring for some of our elders which made life even more hectic.  It literally took me years to dig myself out of that overwhelmed time of life.  

Now as we contemplate the next forty years together we still have plans and places to go.  Try to keep up with us if you can.  We do know that the best of life is yet to come.  

Eric is Still Home

I don't seem to get my entire to do list done when Eric is home sick.  I think that I am a little to tired to care that I am further behind. Though I did manage to get most of the cleaning done today.  By the time I got to me time I landed up taking a nap.  As with the rest of the day that did not go smoothly either.  The phone rang every time I dosed off.  

On the bright side I did manage to make progress on the baby blanket. I hope to get it finished so that I can get the next one started.  The next one is going to be hand knit. I did not think that crocheting  would be so tedious.  It was only eleven years ago that everything I made was crocheted.  I guess that is just part of my artistic evolution.  

I hope to have Eric out the door on Monday. Then I am forgetting about things like laundry and cleaning, then just spending the whole day on me.  A girl can dream can't she?

Laundry Overload

I know I have hit laundry overload when I start dreaming about laundry. Last night I hit overload. I was up with the eyrpy boy until 3:30 a.m.. I was trying to keep up with the eyrpy laundry, but I had to finish the laundry I put in the washer and dryer before bed. The dryer was my sore spot last night, it took forever in my very humble and tired opinion to dry anything.

Well I finally got to get a nap around 3:30 a.m. I dreamt that I was pulling an old fashion 2 wheel shopping cart, the kind women of my grandmothers generation used to use when they went shopping and had to walk or take the bus home with their groceries. The cart was pretty empty when I started out. As the dream progressed it kept getting fuller and fuller. The more I walked the fuller it got.  I could not find any place to wash the pile of laundry no matter how much it grew and was stuffed down in the basket.

When I woke up at 5:30 a.m. I went right back to doing laundry. With great hope on my part, I have what I think is the last load of laundry for the day in the dryer as I write this. Wish me luck. Eric is still a little eyrpy.  Now of course this does not include the yarn that I am plying right now on the spinning wheel.

Another Big Change

Today I spent the day making bibs. Most were baby or toddler size.  I have started clearing out others peoples dreams of what I should be doing with my life. Even others peoples dreams of the next big money maker. If it really was a big money maker why were they not doing it for themselves? Why did I need to do it? I will be finishing half done projects and clearing them out of the house. I will try to spend 1 day a week doing this.  In this new phase of my life I will only take on  new projects that I want to do. I want to spend time exploring my creative side. I can not accomplish this by doing unpaid work that other people think I should be doing. I will pick my own charity projects.

The upside of all of this is that I will have more space for the things I want. By sewing the bibs today I have cleared 1/2 of a shelf in the craft room.  Less is really more.  I will also have a lot of different things that can be used by the Taglit Day Program for fund raising at the Tucson JCC to benefit Eric and his friends.

So to sum up this change a succinctly as I can here goes. If your name is not Teri, John, Eric, Lisa or Matthew. If you are not the Taglit Day Program at the Tucson JCC. If you are not a charity near and dear to my heart. The answer to most unpaid inquires will be no. I will not buy the supplies. I will not drop everything to get your project done and fall behind on things that really need to get done. After so many decades on this earth I will not be every one's go to  person who always says yes.




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