Today would have beent he 85th birthday of a woman who was a great influence in my life.  My maternal grandmother died in August of 1989 and that was a very sad day for me.  My grandmother taught me that life is for learning and that no matter how old you are you never stop learning.  My favorite picture of her is in my mind; my gradmother's table beside her chair.  She always had her rosary, a cup of coffee, a stack of books that she was reading, and her cigarettes and ashtray.  She lived across the street from the public library and was a regular patron.

She was one of the youngest old people that I ever knew.  The night I introduced her to my future husband she was polite and kind to him.  Later she talked with me as if she was a teenage confidant and told me that he was cute and had nice buns!  She liked John Travolta and went with me to see the movie Staying Alive.  She was interested in the lives of her grandchildren and when the great-grandchildren came along she doted on them the way any great grandmother would.

I miss you as much today as I ever have Gram.  I have been told that I am a lot like you and I take that as a compliment. You were a great woman.

EDIT: my math is faulty (go figure) Gram would have been 105 this year.

Outside my window...it is a beautiful, sunny 55.  Perfect weather for hanging out my laundry and spending the day with my computer and books at the picnic table.

I am thinking....about changes.  Changes both for the good and the bad. 

I am thankful for....the sunshine and dry weather that the Lord has sent us for the past four days, for my children both biological and "adopted", and for the grace that God has given me to realize my blessings and be humbled by them.

From the schoolroom....Matthew has a physics final this week then I just have to turn in his final paperwork and we can say he is done with his school career (at least with me).  MK is finishing up her last subject and I am plugging along with mine.

From the kitchen....I have no clue.  MK did all the cooking on Saturday and I was sick all day yesterday (not from her cooking mind) so I am totally out of the loop.  I think Melissa is going to be the provider today.

I am wearing....a sweatshirt and sweatpants.  Not quite warm enough to go summer yet.

I am creating....a body of completed work that I can submit for grading.  Along with working on my Bachelors in English I am also working on my Masters in Catechetical training.

I am going...nowhere but today that is by choice.  My car came home yesterday.  Her cracked head has been replaced and the bent cylinder has been fixed.  She runs like a dream now.

I am reading....The Winter King by Bernard Cornwell

I am hoping....that it stays dry for the bulk of this week so that Ian can get the plowing done.  He was sick Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday so he wasn't able to get on the fields.  He is hoping since it is drying so well to be able to plow either tonight or tomorrow night.

I am hearing.....Melissa loading the dishwasher with the breakfast dishes, MK working on quilting a wedding gift that she made, and the washer spinning out the first load for the day.

Around the house...it is hard to believe that it can get so bad when it is full of adult (who are supposed to put things away) who where mostly outside all weekend long.

One of my favorite things....saying the rosary last night with Ryan on the speaker phone from North Carolina.  The best Mother's day gift a mom could get.

A few plans for the rest of the week.....school, some gardening, some church, some family, and some of everything else.

Here is a picture thought that I am sharing with you...

Layn taking a ride in his wagon.  In spite of the seatbelt he still manages to loosten it up and stand up.

CAUTION: don't read this if you have a weak stomach, difficulty with urinary retention or are already experiencing an intestinal virus.  Reading this could be hazardous to your dignity.

ABOUT THE WRITER, Dave Barry is a Pulitzer Prize-winning humor  columnist for the Miami  Herald.

Colonoscopy Journal:

I called my friend Andy Sable, a gastroenterologist, to  make an appointment for a  colonoscopy.

A  few days later, in his office, Andy showed me a color diagram of the colon, a lengthy organ that appears to go all over the place, at one point passing briefly through Minneapolis.

Then Andy explained the colonoscopy procedure to me in a thorough, reassuring and patient  manner.

I  nodded thoughtfully, but I didn't really hear  anything he said, because my brain was  shrieking, 'HE'S GOING TO STICK A TUBE  17,000 FEET UP YOUR BEHIND!'

I  left Andy's office with some written  instructions, and a prescription for a  product called 'MoviPrep,' which comes in a box  large enough to hold a microwave  oven.  I will discuss MoviPrep in  detail later; for now suffice it to say  that we must never allow it to fall into the  hands of America's  enemies.

I spent  the next several days productively sitting  around being nervous.

Then, on  the day before my colonoscopy, I began my  preparation. In accordance with my  instructions, I didn't eat any solid food that  day; all I had was chicken broth, which is  basically water, only with less  flavor.

Then, in  the evening, I took the  MoviPrep.  You mix two packets of  powder together in a  one-literplastic jug,  then you fill it with lukewarm water. (For  those unfamiliar with the metric system, a  liter is about .32 gallons). Then you have  to drink the whole jug. This takes about an  hour, because MoviPrep tastes - and here I  am being kind - like a mixture  of goat spit  and  urinal cleanser, with just a hint of  lemon.

The  instructions for MoviPrep, clearly written by  somebody with a great sense of humor, state that  after you drink it, 'a loose, watery bowel movement may result.'

This is  kind of like saying that after you jump off your  roof, you may experience contact with  the ground.

MoviPrep  is a nuclear laxative. I don't want to be too  graphic, here, but, have you ever seen  a space-shuttle launch?  This is  pretty much the MoviPrep experience, with you as  the shuttle. There are times when you wish the commode had a seat  belt.  You spend several hours  pretty much confined to the  bathroom, spurting  violently.  You eliminate  everything.  And then, when you figure  you must be totally empty, you have  to drink another liter of MoviPrep, at  which point, as far as I can tell, your  bowels travel into the future and  start eliminating food that you have not  even eaten yet.

After an  action-packed evening, I finally got  to sleep.

The next  morning my wife drove me to the clinic. I was  very nervous.  Not only was I  worried about the procedure, but I had been  experiencing occasional return bouts of MoviPrep  spurtage.  I was thinking, 'What if I spurt on Andy?'  How do you apologize  to a friend for something like that? Flowers would not be enough.

At the  clinic I had to sign many forms acknowledging  that I understood and totally agreed with  whatever the heck the forms said. Then they led  me to a room full of other colonoscopy  people, where I went inside a little curtained  space and took off my clothes and put on one of  those hospital garments designed by sadist  perverts, the kind that, when you put it on, makes you feel even more naked than when  you are actually naked.

Then a nurse named Eddie put a little needle in a vein in my left hand.
Ordinarily I  would have fainted, but Eddie was very good, and I was already lying  down.  Eddie also told me that  some people put vodka in their MoviPrep.

At  first I was ticked off that I hadn't thought of  this, but then I pondered what would happen if  you got yourself too tipsy to make it to  the bathroom, and you were staggering around in  full Fire Hose Mode.  You would have  no choice but to burn your  house.

When  everything was ready, Eddie wheeled me into the  procedure room, where Andy was waiting  with a nurse and an  anesthesiologist.  I did not  see the 17,000-foot tube, but I knew Andy had  it hidden around there  somewhere.  I was seriously nervous at  this point.

Andy  had me roll over on my left side, and the  anesthesiologist began hooking something up to  the needle in my hand.

There  was music playing in the room, and I realized  that the song  was 'Dancing Queen' by  ABBA.  I remarked to Andy that,  of all the songs that could be playing during  this particular procedure, 'Dancing  Queen' had to be the least  appropriate.

'You want me to turn it up?' said Andy, from somewhere behind me.

'Ha ha,'  I said.  And then it was time,  the moment I had been dreading for more than a  decade.  If you are squeamish, prepare yourself, because I am going to tell  you, in explicit detail, exactly what it was  like.

I have  no idea.  Really.  I slept  through it.  One moment, ABBA was yelling 'Dancing Queen, feel the beat of the  tambourine,' and the next moment, I was back in  the other room, waking up in a very  mellow mood.

Andy was  looking down at me and asking me how I  felt.  I felt  excellent. I felt even more  excellent when Andy told me that It was all  over, and that my colon had passed with flying  colors. I have never been prouder of an  internal organ.

On the  subject of Colonoscopies...

Colonoscopies  are no joke, but these comments during the exam  were quite humorous!!!!! A physician claimed  that the following are actual comments made by  his patients (predominately male) while he  was performing  their colonoscopies:

1. 'Take  it easy, Doc. You're boldly going where no man  has gone before!'

2. 'Find  Amelia Earhart yet?'

3. 'Can  you hear me NOW?'

4. 'Are  we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there  yet?'

5. 'You  know, in    Arkansas, we're  now legally married.'

6.'Any  sign of the trapped miners,  Chief?'

7. 'You  put your left hand in, you take your left hand  out...'

8. 'Hey!  Now I know how a Muppet  feels!'

9. 'If  your hand doesn't fit, please quit!'

10. 'Hey  Doc, let me know if you find  my dignity.'

11. 'You  used to be an executive at Enron, didn't  you?'

12. 'God,  now I know why I am not gay.'

And the  best one of all:

13. 'Could  you write a note for my wife saying that my head  is not up there?'

Thank you for the Mother's day flowers.

I have encountered the question about beauty.  Let me re-quote my niece's reply since it is so bang on the dot the answer. Well said Holy Father:

"BEAUTY is a key to the mystery and a call to transcendence. It is an invitation to savor life and to dream of the future. That is why the beauty of created things can never fully satisfy. It stirs that hidden nostalgia for God which a lover of beauty like St. Augustine could express in incomparable terms: ‘Late have I loved you, beauty so old and so new: late have I loved you!’" - Blessed John Paul II

A little over two weeks ago my car started to stutter every time that I accelerated.  Being a part of my life nothing is ever very simple so at the same time the check engine light came on.  Since I am an exceptional wife I did what every exceptional wife does and I called my mechanic (my son) to find out about putting my girl on the computer to diagnose the problem.  I then called my husband and told him the situation and he approved the plan to have Jason diagnose the car.

Sure enough it was a bad coil and the car was only firing on 7 cylinders.  Simple fix really; new plugs, and replace the bad coil and everything would be all hunky dorey.  Right?

In the process of getting one of the plugs out it broke off, not an uncommon happening.  However when they tip of the easy out broke off and fell into the cylinder the $40 fix became a $600 fix.  My girl was looking at a head job. So we borrowed the neighbor's car dolley and loaded her up to go to be fixed.  She wasn't leaving here without a struggle.  Dodge Durango + car dolley= ramps dragging on the road.

Farmer solution to the problem; load 1000 lbs worth of cement blocks into the back of Corey's truck so it will ride lower thus raising up the hitch.

The solution to the problem worked and Corey was able to drive away with my girl following behind.  But that is not the end of the story.

They got the head apart and found it was cracked and that the cylinder is bent.  Now our $600 fix has turned into a $1200 fix.  Oh well such is the price for automotive repair.  Perhaps I should have shot her and buried her in a shallow grave instead of thinking about fixing her.

Outside my window...the sun is not yet fully up.  I hear birds singing and a lot of clouds in the sky.  Let there be clouds today is another start to another semester of school.  I must not let the call of the wild distract me from my pursuit of knowledge.

I am thankful for...the immense cloud of witnesses that surround me. My son has recently been reminding all of us of that particular blessing.

I am thinking....about the fluidity of time.  The older I get the more I think about the passage of time and how it ebbs and flows all around us.

From the schoolroom...more of the same and yet not the same.  Matthew passed his lifeguarding course yesterday and is now awaiting the documentation so that he can go job searching.

From the kitchen....black beans tonight with all of the fixings.

I am wearing...jammies, nice warm jammies.  The temperatures are still falling into the thirties and forties at night. It is way too early to shed the winter long johns for the summer skimpies.

I am creating...a haven. A home filled with peace and tranquility.  I am creating a place where family can come for a refuge.

I am going....nowhere at all.  My car is still in a coma. It has been transported to a place to be fixed but it will be awhile before that is done.

I am reading...The 5 Love Languages by Chapman

I am hoping...that the mechanic is able to breathe new life into my car without having to perform major surgery.

I am hearing...the quiet sounds of a house not awake yet. Ian has gone to work already but no one else is up yet, not even Layn.

Around the house....all is as it should be.  There are signs of family and togetherness wherever you look.

One of my favorite things....the smell of the maple leaves as they burst open.  There is a sweet green smell to the outdoors that is intoxicating.

A few plans for the rest of the week...more of the same and yet....not the same.  Schoolwork, housework, family work.  Life is what I plan on doing this week.

Here is a picture thought that I am sharing with you...

One of the new arrivals.  An ideal way to spend a sunny Sunday afternoon.