As I collect my thoughts about the whirlwind week we’ve had, including witnessing a partial lunar eclipse, it feels surreal to be okay as an empty nester mom. I’m able to gather up each brief moment, hold it dear to my heart, and at the same time, let go and wait for another precious moment to arrive.
I enjoy watching our daughters do the things I did so many years ago when I was their age. It’s different now, but the same in many ways. It is still fun to gather around the bonfire with family and friends and share stories about our lives.
I remember when we moved into our house 30 years ago. We were a young couple ready to embark on all the firsts in married life. The first thing I wanted in our yard was a clothesline. So Mr. built it for me.
This week while my youngest was off buying a new car, I volunteered to hang her and her camping partner’s travel clothes on the line to air dry. They’ve collected quite a bit of hiking clothing that can’t smell like dryer sheets.
As I hung their clothes on the line, I thought back to when there was a swing set on one side of the yard and a jungle gym playhouse on the other side. Sandwiched in between was the clothesline. The girls and their friends would run back and forth and play there while I did laundry.
Funny how memories collect in our brains isn’t it? Ah, yes – It’s fun to remember back to when Mr. and I were the adulting young kids with off-spring. Maybe someday we’ll be grandparents?
A good life is a collection of happy moments.
Denis Waitley
Our oldest daughter is busy at home with her own staycation this week. Painting windows, updating the numbers on her house, picking paint samples for the front door, planting flowers, and feeling comfortable owning her own home. I wonder if she’ll put up a clothesline someday? Or have a jungle gym in the backyard? For now, she’s content to watch her cat play and chase/hunt birds. Her gardens look great. And her Hostas last year were a safe haven for a little fawn. Wonder if that will happen again this year? We need to take a trip to visit her home sweet home again soon. I enjoy all our SNAPS back and forth with each other, but in-person is best.
When my youngest was due to arrive here, to return the first car that she’s had for 10 years, I told Mr. we better hang the pictures so she can see them on the walls! As he was hanging them, because, that skill is definitely out of my wheelhouse, it took me a while to recall when it was I bought the frames she gave back to me on Mother’s Day. When was it? Oh, yeah, it was the 2019 Black Friday shopping excursion with my daughters.
Remember the blank walls after our big 2019 DIY kitchen remodel? I wasn’t quite sure what to put there. Or if it needed anything at all. I used to have many decorations on the walls over the years. Among the items were decorative plates. One day the girls accidentally knocked a plate off the wall with a broomstick. It shattered on the floor. And I was so mad I yelled. I regret being so mad at them. How silly it was to be worried about a plate that simply collected dust and maddened me each time I’d wash it.
I haven’t missed having to wash things on the wall. Hmm, that is nice…but I still wanted something there.
I wanted to be deliberate about what I hung there now. The idea came to me 6 months after I bought the frames. I told her I wanted pictures of herbs painted by my daughter to adorn the walls. I could just picture them in my head and hoped those pictures I saw would telepathically enter her head and flow onto the paper through her paintbrush. When the girls were here visiting last summer for their birthdays, I gave the frames to my youngest daughter to store and paint while she was safe at home in 2020. Hoping to get them back for Christmas, but that only happened in virtual mode. The keep the kids occupied while in quarantine mom in me came out when I gave the frames to her to keep her busy. Reminds me of all the paint and playdough we got out and messed up the kitchen with over the years.
There is a song that brings back memories to me too. It was an earworm as I watched Mr. hang the frames. Do you like originals or remakes of songs from the past?
I think the Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme paintings look great, what do you think?
And what about the new car…how did that turn out? 10 years ago she wanted a yellow car. Her dad and grandpa found her one. And this year, with Grandpa’s help again, he found the car she bought in a similar, updated modern color. Daddy approves of her choice too.
And now, she’ll experience new Crosstrek adventures and we’ll experience selling the first car to the next interested family. Collectively, I think we all can relate to the first car experiences, right? Mine was a very loved and well-worn-out rust bucket Honda Civic. I bought it for $200. I hope we get more than $200 for her car! LOL!
Post Inspiration – Linda G. Hill’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday – Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “collect.” Use the word “collect” any way you’d like. Have fun!
PS – What was your first car and how much did you pay for it? What was the first thing you added to your first home? Did you notice that it only took Mr. 30 minutes to hang the frames?! Do you love bonfires in the spring? What are you doing for fun this Memorial Day weekend? Thank you to all those who served and lost their lives in service. We celebrate the memory of you this weekend. xoxo
Very nice job with the prompt 🙂
Thank you, Dan – I enjoyed your take on the prompt too. And, your photos too – your rhododendrons are gorgeous.
Wow, so many great photos, Shelley. The paintings look great on your wall! That song always makes me feel sad… And I’m just hanging out at home by myself as usual since the family is back up your way but I did finish pruning that palm tree this morning! Have a fun holiday. 😎🌴🍻
Thank you, John. Yeah, that song makes me sad too. Your palm tree trimming is looking so great. When I was in Florida, my friend’s front yard has palm trees and lemongrass so we did a lot of trimming and fine tuning.
Your welcome. It’s hard work isn’t it, but the finished tree looks much better. It’s right outside my kitchen window!
Nice! A well kept tree is a joy too see.
Much of this city is well landscaped, very different from the wild landscapes of Michigan.
It’s interesting how different each state is from each other.
👏🏻👏🏻
You have a beautiful life. Happy to see her in a Subaru, good car for road trips
Aw, thank you, I appreciate your feedback. Yes, Subarus are great for road trips! She can’t wait to go on her next adventure.
I love this post so much! So many great memories… and new ones to create. Your daughter did an awesome job on those herb paintings and the floating frames are perfect. Oh, and I’m so jealous of your clothesline. There was one in the yard when we bought our 1950s-vintage house back in 1994, but our remodel dealt it a fatal blow.
Aw, thank you, I’m glad you enjoyed the post Janis! Yes, I think the paintings in the frames turned out perfect for my walls. I’ve always loved hanging my children’s artwork ;-)! Bummer on your clothesline – I do love mine and should appreciate and use it more often. 😉
So many wonderful memories. Reading your post took me down memory lane 😊 Thank you for sharing.
Thank you, Lakshmi, I’m glad you enjoyed the post. I enjoyed your post as well. Nice take on the collect prompt!
Great memories Shelley. Love the wall colour and the drawing are lovely. Thanks for including songs 🙂 🙂
Thank you, Brian, I’m glad you enjoyed the post and the songs!
Your daughter’s paintings are great Shelley! They look perfect there. This was a nice stroll down your memory lane. 🙂
Thank you!!! I, of course, agree on the paintings. It’s so nice to hear from you – I hope that means your computer is working well for you?! You’re so smart to back-up often. I need to do that…!
I’m always excited to see a post from you Shelley! I really enjoy them. This laptop is nice. I’ve used the free version of Sync Back for years. It backs up whatever I want automatically to one of those little external hard drives. Once it’s set, I don’t have to think about it. I have simple needs so the free version is fine.
Yay – I enjoy stopping by your blog to see what creative thoughts you’ve shared. I think we have a server in our house. At least Mr. tells me I keep it full. You’re lucky you have a simple set-up that you understand. I’d have to call for help if Mr. wasn’t here to help me. 🙂 Maybe I should look into Sync Back? Hmm…
[I apologize for my tardiness in commenting Shelley – we had a computer crash at work on May 20th that has wreaked havoc on my work life as well as encroached bigtime on my personal time. I am still a week behind behind in Reader as of right now but aim to catch up a little at a time.] I like seeing the pictures from back in the day – how cute hanging upside down on the jungle gym. I didn’t notice the clock time as I was looking at the photos. My first car was a 1973 VW two-speed Beetle in Biscay Blue. My parents bought it for me new to ensure I had a safe ride to school for when I began college, but it was a lemon. The first car I bought myself was a 1977 Pacer which similarly was a lemon.
I hope the computer issues are all resolved. They sure can mess with life! Thank you for sharing your thoughts. Aww you had a Beetle AND a Pacer – I’m impressed, I wanted both of those cars and ended up with a red Honda and a burnt orange Gremlin. A lemon yellow Pacer – my daughter would’ve loved that!
I was going to share my story earlier but thought I’d be able to catch up better … it’s been a struggle to keep up here and the computer issue has been a nightmare and continues to be … I am not ready to work on the Windows 10 laptop until the issues are all resolved. I loved my Beetle and had pin-stripes put on and an alarm system, but every time it was windy, the alarm would go off and had to be disconnected. Every time it rained or snowed, the engine would get damp and not start. I had so many tows the auto club cancelled me and this was a brand-new car. So my father took over the Beetle and I got the Pacer (also a lemon).
I hope computer things are getter this week!? Aw, that’s a bummer that you had two lemons. Your current car is holding up right!?
It’s about the same Shelley … it was bad in the beginning because I lost data and had to type some things over from scratch – grr. And, as for Outlook, I don’t know what he’s done to it, but it is configured all wrong. I have tried tweaking it to no avail. I have always had access to Robb’s inbox so it was just at the bottom of own inbox … I could see his sent/deleted/drafts/calendar and inbox. Not any more. I don’t know if it is something that the computer guy has done wrong (he denies knowing I ever had administrative privileges before though he set it up and has served this account for ten years). I have to toggle back and forth and scroll up and down to see his e-mail and I gave him Robb’s signature/contact info and it only appears on my outgoing e-mails, not his. My boss does not know how to do an attachment to an e-mail and can no longer edit or save or send me anything … it’s been a debacle and he could have done this last year when we weren’t busy. The equipment has been sitting around since March 2019. Sigh. My current car is doing well – it is a 2009 LaCrosse and has 8,549 miles on it.
Oh, man, that sounds frustrating. I commend you for your perseverance. I swear that Outlook has changed and doesn’t play well with multiple email accounts like it used to.
Your car sounds like a great car – serving you well!
So maybe it isn’t all the computer guy’s fault? I don’t like this focused/other categories at all. I feel like all I do is toggle in the inbox and to both our inboxes. I could have lived without this hassle, that’s for sure. I hope to have it for a long time, Sunday driver that I am, though I’ve gotten better about putting more miles on it on my weekend jaunts to larger parks.
Hard to tell. Computer stuff frustrates me too. I can’t get Outlook to work on my work computer so use the crappy online email system provided by our hosting site. That is beyond frustrating!
Yay for your car!!
Maybe I should not be blaming the computer guy, though it looks silly with my boss’ contact info going out with my e-mails, not his and that should be fixed. It’s always something.
I’ll keep my fingers crossed that you get it figured out soon!