Keep refrigerated

Photo Challenge Day 29 - Inside your fridge

Several  months ago on the Today Show there was a segment on kitchen organization. I took one thing from that: Putting a Lazy Susan in your fridge. I picked this one up at Bed, Bath & Beyond with a 20% off coupon making it less than $7.00.  It's an inexpensive way of keeping control of the smaller tubs and jars that otherwise get moved to the back where they sit way past their expiration date. It makes it easy to reach what I am looking for because it makes it easy to find what I am looking for. All I do is spin the thing!


 

Light

Photo Challenge Day 28 - Light

As evidenced by the railing in the bottom left of this photo, my house has a curved staircase. This stained glass window and ledge are in the middle of the curved wall. I was not so fond of this stained glass when I moved into the house but have since grown to like it very much. A window would be terrible there, as it would only show me the second floor exterior of my neighbor's house. But the stained glass allows light in while keeping the neighbor's house out. Sometimes, the light shines through so brightly it throws big rays of golden light into the dining room downstairs and the landing at the top of the stairs.

One thing that immediately grabbed me about this house was all the windows and natural light. There is no need to turn on a single light until the sun is down and the moon is up. I like that very much. 


 

Mom

Today is about my mother. I miss her so much, so much that when I think about it, when I think about what I am feeling, like right now, it's hard to breathe.

Today is the day my Mom died five years ago. I knew she would die, some day. Of course. That thought was the stuff of many nightmares in my young life. What I didn't think about and didn't know was what life would be like without her. What I would do without answers to my questions, unconditional parental love, the shoulder of support, the advice giving comfort known as Mom. Without her hugs.

I simply never thought of life beyond my Mom. I miss her voice. I miss her perfume. I miss her stubborn streak and her sense of adventure. I miss her belief that nothing was impossible. I miss her celebration and her laughter, her wonderful laughter.

I miss her love. 

I miss her presence even as her absence gains familiarity.

p.s. Today's photo challenge is "Lunch." I don't eat lunch on Sundays. I eat a late breakfast and much later in the day I'll have dinner. No photo today.

Brown & Blue

Photo Challenge Day 26 - Color

This challenge just might have been the most challenging for me. When I think of color I think of bright shiny shouting hues of pink or green or yellow. I think of a purple headache. My home is decorated in muted tones of mossy greens, dusty blues, creamy yellows. My closet is filled with blue jeans, white t-shirts and black t-shirts, a few blue shirts. My shoes are black or brown.

Today was an unusual day, a spring-like Saturday in the middle of a calendar winter. A perfect day to take the dogs to the park. And that is where I found my color. Brown dog, brown earth, blue water, blue collar, pink tongue, red tag. Happy dog. My colors.



 

With my own two hands

Photo Challenge Day 25 - Something you made

Something I made? I could show you the stack of dishes in my kitchen sink. I made that mess. Or, I could snap a photo of the pile of laundry in the laundry room. I made that mess as well.  I was considering one of those when I remembered a little something that sits on a shelf in the office upstairs.

I made this little bowl with my own two hands. It was my first and only time at a pottery wheel. I glazed it and scratched my name into the bottom before it went into the kiln. I was 10 years old, the summer was 1972, and I was at camp for a six-week term that no doubt my parents were thoroughly enjoying.

I was so proud of this little bowl and I was so excited to give it to my parents. On the last day of camp I packed all my belongings in my foot locker and then folded my sheets and blanket, placed them atop my top bunk, put my pillow on top and then set this bowl on top of that before heading out into the morning activities that the camp and campers arranged for the parents.

That afternoon when my parents and I went to my cabin to retrieve my things, my father reached up to grab my bed linens and pillow. He couldn't see that little bowl that I had made and it came crashing down to the hard tile floor. And broke into many pieces. I looked at him and he at me. He pulled his handkerchief from his pocket and carefully, oh so carefully, he, mom and I picked up each piece. He gathered them in the handkerchief and told me he would glue it back together when we got back home. And he did. And then he placed the little bowl on a shelf of treasures in his office.

So, something I made. And my father repaired.


 

Pop Culture

Photo Challenge Day 24 - Guilty Pleasure

Today's challenge was an easy one for me. My favorite guilty pleasure is People Magazine. I don't subscribe to it but I do pick it up whenever I am in the checkout line at the grocery store. Like yesterday, for instance.

I remember the first time I saw People Magazine. I don't know why I remember because it's a memory of no importance but nonetheless I do. I was at the neighbor's house across the street. The kids that lived there, some other neighborhood kids and I had all run into the house to get some water after playing flag football in their front yard. There on the coffee table in their sun room was People Magazine. Farah Fawcett was on the cover. While I was already into music magazines such as Cream and Rolling Stone, I had never seen this one before. I picked up the magazine and flipped through its pages. The oldest kid in the family informed me that it was about stars. Stars, she said. I could see them in her eyes. Putting the magazine back on the table, I rolled my eyes. I could not have cared less about the topic. 

And yet, even though I still do not care, I find that I do enjoy reading this magazine. It's a fun break from my own reality. I like to look at the fashions and there's always a good story on a local hero. I like that this magazine does not take a tear-'em-down approach to the celebrities it covers. I read it at night when I'm too tired to dig into my books. It's light and I like it.

There, I admit it. Guilty.


 

Tick Tock

Photo Challenge Day 23 - Something Old

This clock. I don't know much about it, never thought to ask when the answer was available to me. It belonged to my parents and for as long as I can remember it has been on one mantle or another in our home. It's a Tiffany & Company clock so I'm inclined to believe it was a wedding gift. But my parents could have inherited it from their parents. I just do not know the story. It does not work. When I brought it to a clock and watch shop a year or so ago for a repair estimate I was told it couldn't be repaired, that the parts for this clock are long gone from any readily available supply they were aware of.  I don't mind that it doesn't work, its part of the clock's mystique.

Shoes

Photo Challenge Day 22 - Your shoes

These are the shoes I am wearing today. They are brown, which is unusual for me. I rarely wear them but these jeans are so short that these are the only shoes I can wear with them. That's all I have to say about that.


 

Inauguration Day

Photo Challenge Day 21 – Reflection

President Obama was inaugurated for his second term as the President of the United States today, which also happens to be the date formally dedicated to honor Martin Luther King, Jr. From the man who lead a monumental movement of civil rights and freedom, from we the people to our chosen leader, truly this day is a reflection of Dr. King’s dream.


 

No better friend

Photo Challenge Day 20 - Sweet

This girl, she can show her awesome teeth and growl and kick and scare any stranger. But I laugh when she does because the truth is, she much prefers to flip over on her back and have her belly rubbed. She is the most vicious sweetheart I've ever known and I love every bit of her, including every single tough-girl face she makes. The sweetest gift, she is, my Tiny, Shiny, Wooby cat, Cheyanna banana monster, Pussy cat. Yeah, what she brings to my life is definitely sweet. Aprapos of everything about her.